What cervical screening is:
A cervical screening test is a free test to check the health of your cervix.
Please note that if requesting a cervical screening test when it is not due, that there will be a fee.
- The cervix is the opening to your womb from your vagina.
- It’s not a test for cancer, it’s a test to see if you are at risk of developing cancer.
- If you have a cervix, you can get cervical cancer. 9 in 10 cervical cancers are caused by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is spread through any kind of sexual contact with a man or a woman.
- HPV that doesn’t go away is called persistent HPV. This can cause changes to the cells of the cervix over time, but HPV is not the only cause of cervical cancer.
- You can get cervical cancer if you have never had sex.
- You should book your cervical screening test and go to it when it is due.
Reducing your risk:
You can reduce your risk of getting cervical cancer by:
- Attending all your cervical screening appointments when they are due getting symptoms checked having treatment and extra tests when advised getting the HPV vaccine in school How cervical screening helps prevent cancer developing.
Cervical screening may check for:
- Human papillomavirus (HPV) – some types of HPV can lead to cell changes in your cervix and cancer abnormal cell changes in your cervix – left untreated, these could turn into cancer
- Your cervical screening test sample will be checked for HPV first.
- If HPV is found, your same test sample will be checked to see if you have any abnormal (pre-cancerous) cells in your cervix. If abnormal cells are found, you will have a colposcopy.
- If HPV is not found, we do not need to check for abnormal cells. This is because your risk of developing cervical cancer is very low if you do not have HPV.
- This way of screening is called HPV cervical screening.
If you have had a smear test in the past, having a cervical screening test will feel the same. You won’t need to do anything different.
