TribLIVE – Women will have an alternative Pap smear option starting this fall, the New York Times reported.
The new option is a swab to screen for cervical cancer — rather than the speculum, which has been the norm during Pap smear examinations.
The Times said a Pap smear requires a patient’s legs to be held apart with stirrups and a cold metal device, the speculum, to be inserted, while a physician scrapes cells from the cervix.
“Even when acute pain isn’t an issue, research suggests that, for many, Pap smears are uncomfortable, for a complex set of physical and emotional reasons,” according to the Times.
The new swab option will allow women to self-collect a sample while in the doctor’s office — similar to a swab used during a covid-19 test, the Times said.
Once samples are collected, labs test for strains of HPV, most likely to cause cervical cancer, according to the Times.
The new method was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May, USA Today reported.
“It’s to reach women who traditionally haven’t been reached,” said Jeff Andrews, vice president of medical and scientific affairs at BD, one of the makers of the new method, according to USA Today …
