Word: papping
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Putting down Pap...
...seems incredible to me that Public Health Researcher Foltz and Epidemiologist Kelsey, described in your story "Flap About Pap" [Nov. 13], would put down the Pap smear on the basis of "considerable expense." This relatively simple test, which can detect cancer, costs only about $6. Further, if the test does not detect cancerous conditions 25% to 30% of the time, isn't this all the more reason to have checkups annually and not every three to five years...
...link the drop to the test. The decrease might be explained by other factors like the increasing number of hysterectomies, in which the cervix is usually removed. The true efficacy of the test is also clouded by the fact that though half the adult women in the U.S. have Pap smears annually, relatively few of the tests are on women who run the highest risk of developing cervical cancer. The disease is most prevalent among women in low-income groups, as well as those who begin having sex at an early age and have multiple sex partners...
...that because the condition of the cells is sometimes misinterpreted by the laboratory, another 7% of tested women who are in good health are told they have suspicious smears, after which a biopsy is often recommended. To Foltz and Kelsey, such statistics at the very least indicate that the Pap test is being overused at considerable expense to the public; the cost of mass annual screening, including office visit charges for women seeing their gynecologists solely for the annual test, runs in the millions...
Beyond U.S. borders, others have come to similar conclusions. A medical task force in Canada studied the effects of the annual Pap smear and two years ago reported that the results did not warrant the costs. Their recommendation: at age 18 any woman who has had sex should have her first Pap test. If it is negative, she should wait a year and have a second test. If that too is negative, then she should be screened only once every three years until age 35, then once every five years to age 60. If the test is still negative, there...