The province has introduced a new program for cervical cancer screening and will be phasing out the PAP test in favour of HPV screening. Anyone with a cervix, including women and TTGD (Two-Spirit, transgender and gender diverse) people, between the ages of 25 and 69, should screen for cervical cancer every three or five years. People can now choose between provider collected screening (done at our office) or self screening (done at home). HPV testing is more effective than cytology at identifying people at risk of developing pre-cancerous cervical lesions.Because HPV testing is more accurate and has a higher negative predictive value, the interval between negative HPV screens can be safely extended to 5 years compared to 3 years for Pap tests. For more information and to order a kit for screening, check here. You can also book an appointment with your family doctor to discuss or to have your cervical cancer screening done at the office.
If you are doing cervical cancer screening by self-collection at home, we recommended booking an appointment with your physician every 1-2 years, depending on your age and health to discuss all the other types of recommended screening and preventive health recommendations to ensure that you are up to date. Examples of other screening tests and /or preventive interventions that should be considered depending on age and risk factors include screening for colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, poor vision, risk of falls, abdominal aortic aneurysm, high cholesterol, sexually transmitted disease testing, and discussing diet, exercise and substance use and /or updating immunization)