Screen Test

Cervical cancer is the easiest female cancer to prevent with regular screening and follow up. Two screening test can help prevent cervical cancer or find it early.

1. Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA)
   This is the visual Inspection of the cervix using acetic acid in Lugo's Iodine to highlight precancerous lesions so they can be viewed with the "naked eye". This procedure shifts the identification of precancerous cells from lab to the clinic. It has the advantages of reducing human labour, requires very little equipment and provides women with immediate test result.


2. Pap test or Pap smear (Cervical cytology)
   This looks out for precancerous cells changes on the cervix that can be cervical cancer if they are not treated appropriately.


3. HPV tests:
   This looks out for the virus (Human Papillomavirus) that cause these cell changes.
   
   The Pap test is recommended for all women and can be done in a doctor's office or clinic. During the Pap test, the doctor will use a plastic or metal instrument called a speculum to widen the vagina. This helps the doctor examine the vagina and the cervix, collect a few cells and mucus from the cervix and the area around it. The cells are then placed on a slide or in a bottle of liquid and sent to a lab, the lab will then check to be sure that cells are normal.

The cells collected can also be used to look out for HPV.

During a pap test, the doctor may also perform a pelvic examination, checking the uterus ovaries and other organs.

When to get screened;

Regular Pap smear should start from age 21 or within three years of the first time you have sex, which ever happens first.

The Pap test screens for cervical cancer alone. If you are 30years old or older and your screening tests are normal, there is reduced risk of getting cervical cancer in the next few years - hysterectomy and people older than 65yrs who have test negative in the past are relieved of these test.