LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Federal guidelines are expanding the ways to test for cervical cancer beyond the Pap smear, the uncomfortable procedure done at a doctor's office that many people dread. New recommendations from the Health Resources and Services Administration say that women ages 30 to 65 with an average risk of cervical cancer can opt for a self-administered HPV test. Here to tell us more about this test is Dr. Mara Gordon, a family physician who writes NPR's Real Talk With A Doc column. Good morning.
MARA GORDON: Good morning.
FADEL: So, when you heard about this test that you can self-administer at home, first of all, how does it work? And what does it mean?
GORDON: So this is great news for women's health, and I'm really optimistic that it's going to make it a lot easier for women to get screened for cervical cancer because it means that ultimately, they'll need fewer pelvic exams done by doctors, which, you know, if you've ever had one, are not the most fun thing in the world.
FADEL: Right.
GORDON: They can be uncomfortable, sometimes really upsetting for people who have a history of trauma.
FADEL: Yeah.
GORDON: So I see self-testing for HPV as a way of giving women more control over their health. And self-testing for HPV is really simple. It basically involves the patient swabbing her own vagina and then sending the sample to a lab to test for HPV. And the good thing is, we know it's just as accurate as a test done by a doctor or a nurse. So for me, this is a no-brainer for my patients.
FADEL: If you could just lay out the link between HPV and the risks of cervical cancer and why this testing is so important.
GORDON: So HPV causes cervical cancer, which, it's important to note, is a preventable cancer. So the first step in prevention is getting vaccinated for HPV in childhood and the second step is getting screened for HPV in adulthood. So I always tell my patients that HPV is kind of like the common cold of sex. If you've ever been sexually active, we sort of assume that you've been exposed.
So just like common colds, some people fight off HPV really quickly and others don't. And when an HPV infection lingers over time, it can ultimately lead to cervical cancer. So that's what we're looking for when we test for it. So we can find the people who are at high risk for developing cancer and then do follow-up testing and treatment, if necessary.
And it's important to note that patients can do self-testing in two ways, and they're a little bit different. There's a self-swab that's done at home...
FADEL: Yeah.
GORDON: ...Or a self-swab that's done in a doctor's office. And the tests are a little bit different and neither one is widespreadly available yet, but I'm really optimistic that in the coming years, it'll be much easier to access HPV testing.
FADEL: Do you think this kind of testing, self-administered testing, will lead to more screening and catching cancers earlier?
GORDON: Yeah. We're really optimistic. So we know that we are not doing as well as we should with cervical cancer screening in the United States. It's estimated that about a quarter of American women are not up to date on their cervical cancer screening, and we know that mortality rates from cervical cancer in older women in particular are much higher, and we think it's because the cancer tends to be more advanced when it's discovered in older patients.
And older women, sort of outside of their peak reproductive years, often don't see their OB-GYNs as frequently. So, many primary care doctors like me, we do offer cervical cancer screening, but you know what primary care is like, right? So when a patient comes in to see me, we have a really busy visit, a million things to talk about.
And a Pap smear, a patient needs to get undressed, have a full pelvic exam and sometimes that feels like too much, and it kind of gets pushed away and, you know, pushed to the next visit, pushed to the next visit. And so I'm optimistic that HPV self-collection is just going to make it a lot easier for more primary care clinicians and OB-GYNs to say, you know, hey, just stop in the restroom on your way out, leave us a sample, and then we can get you screened for cervical cancer.
FADEL: Dr. Mara Gordon is a family physician based in New Jersey. Thank you so much for joining us.
GORDON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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