Detecting of cervical cancer: smear, age, frequency

All women aged between 25 and 65 can benefit from a cervical cancer screening, fully reimbursed by health insurance. Cervical cancer is caused by viruses called “human papillomavirus” (HPV). Very common, these viruses are most often transmitted during sexual intercourse, with or without penetration. The condom does not allow you to protect itself completely.

At what age to screen for cervical cancer?

Concretely, each woman aged 25 to 65 can benefit from regular screening, every three years, of cervical cancer. Screening is based on the realization of a levy at the level of the cervix to possibly detect abnormal cells (cytological examination) and/or detect the presence of the virus (HPV test).

Recall that screening allows, on the one hand, to identify and treat precancerous lesions before they evolve Towards cancer and, on the other hand, to detect cancers at an early stage, whose prognosis is much better than an advanced stage. Even vaccinated against papillomavirus, this examination is essential. In fact, the vaccine does not protect from all papillomavirus. Finally, whatever their age, the absence of sex does not provide regular screening.

How often ?

Screening is part of an organized national program which provides:

• Between 25 and 30 years old: Cytological screening every 3 years (after 2 tests carried out 1 year apart and whose results are normal);
• Between 30 and 65 years old: An HPV test screening every 5 years (which is looking for high -risk HPV viruses).

Should we screen for menopause?

Thanks to organized screening, menopausal women are more monitored. Indeed, After 55 years, one in two women does not make a smearagainst one in three women before this age. However, smear remain useful, even after menopause. Indeed, anomalies linked to human papillomavirus (HPV) evolve slowly and can therefore be diagnosed by many years later (up to 30 years). Another target population, women of the least favored socio-economic categories or living in certain departments with low medical density. “49 % of women benefiting from the CMU-C do not make smear regularly, as well as 61 % of women residing in places considered to be the most disadvantaged,” said Inca in 2017.

For the time being, near 9 out of 10 smears are made by gynecologists On the occasion of routine gynecological visits. If they do not practice the smear themselves, general practitioners can however direct their patients to another health professional or another structure practicing this examination (health centers, analysis laboratories with a medical prescription, health examination centers within the framework of the health assessment, planning centers). THE midwives can also perform this exam before, during and after pregnancy. Note that a quarter of pregnant women do not make smear, yet recommended during pregnancy if it has not been made in the previous 2 to 3 years. The examination is done in a gynecological position.

You can make an appointment with: a gynecologist; of a general practitioner; a midwife (during but also outside of pregnancy follow-up); a health center, a mutual center, a family planning and education center or a hospital; of certain medical biology laboratories (on medical prescription).

The screening test must be carried out in the recommended intervals: every 3 years between 25 and 30 years (after 2 tests carried out 1 year apart and whose results are normal) and every 5 years between 30 and 65 years.

Is screening free?

As part of the national cervical cancer screening program, cytological examination and the HPV test performed during the screening smear is 100 % covered by health insurance.

College cancer affects 3,000 women each year in France

College cancer is cancer that starts after an HPV virus infection that 80 % of women meet at the start of their sex life. It is a banal and uncomplicated infection, which disappears spontaneously. It happens, more rarely, in about 5 % of cases, that this virus causes genital lesions, but which will regress spontaneously. The evolution towards precancerous lesions is very rare (they are detected in less than 1 % of women), but around 60 % of them can evolve towards cancer. In France, 3,000 women develop collar cancer each year and 1,100 die.

For Prevent cervical cancer2 additional devices are therefore offered to women:

• a screening examinationthe cervix of the cervix, from 25 years old, which makes it possible to detect precancerous lesions and cancers at a stage allowing more easily healing;
• A vaccine before 19 years old Against the main risk factor for this cancer, the papillomavirus. While it is regularly perceived as harmful and ineffective, this HPV vaccine remains “safe, effective and essential to eliminate cervical cancer”, said the World Health Organization in a press release published on Monday, February 4, 2019.