The Pap Smear May Finally Be on Its Way Out

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Anyone who’s had a Pap smear knows that having your legs in stirrups while a doctor inserts a speculum and scrapes your cervix can be uncomfortable or even painful. Now, it looks like the process for detecting cervical cancer could finally change.

The New York Times reports that a handful of health-care companies are getting ready to introduce a test that would allow doctors and patients to skip the speculum. Instead, women could swab their own vaginas with a swab like those used to test for COVID. The tests would still have to be done in a doctor’s office or clinic, with the patient leaving the sample as they would with a urine test. The sample would then be sent to a lab to test for the strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) most likely to cause cervical cancer.

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration approved self-testing tools from pharmaceutical companies Roche and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), though it said they can only be used in medical facilities. The companies told the Times that they hope that eventually women will be able to self-test at home. Several countries, including Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden, already allow self-testing instead of Pap smears, and many allow self-testing at home. In the U.S., the FDA is still reviewing at-home self-testing.

Research done over the past 20 years suggests that self-testing is as effective as traditional Pap smears at preventing cervical cancer for women 25 and older, per the Times. BD’s tests are expected to be available in September and Roche’s later in the fall.