Cervical cancer has always been rare in the developed world, and was in steady decline before screening started. In Australia it was 15 women in 100,000 affected, now it's 9, but other factors are also having an impact on the incidence and death rate...more women have had hysterectomies, fewer women smoking, better condoms and hygiene, less STD (Dr Gilbert Welch included those last two in his book, "Over-diagnosed") So some women have benefited from pap testing, but no one seems to care about the vast over-detection and over-treatment of healthy women...made worse by the serious overuse of the pap test.
Finland and the Netherlands have shown that there was no need to harm so many, with screening based on the evidence...now we can identify the roughly 5% who are HPV positive at age 30 or older, they are the only women who have a small chance of benefiting from a 5 yearly pap test...95% of women aged 30 or older are HPV negative and not at risk, they cannot benefit from pap testing. So who benefits from all of this pap testing, excess biopsies and over-treatment, certainly not women? I think women's healthcare needs to be refocused on what's best for women. It seems few countries are able to keep high emotion, vested and political interests out of women's healthcare.
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Cervical cancer has always been rare in the developed world, and was in steady decline before screening started. In Australia it was 15 women in 100,000 affected, now it's 9, but other factors are also having an impact on the incidence and death rate...more women have had hysterectomies, fewer women smoking, better condoms and hygiene, less STD (Dr Gilbert Welch included those last two in his book, "Over-diagnosed") So some women have benefited from pap testing, but no one seems to care about the vast over-detection and over-treatment of healthy women...made worse by the serious overuse of the pap test.
September 16, 2012 - 8:00amFinland and the Netherlands have shown that there was no need to harm so many, with screening based on the evidence...now we can identify the roughly 5% who are HPV positive at age 30 or older, they are the only women who have a small chance of benefiting from a 5 yearly pap test...95% of women aged 30 or older are HPV negative and not at risk, they cannot benefit from pap testing. So who benefits from all of this pap testing, excess biopsies and over-treatment, certainly not women? I think women's healthcare needs to be refocused on what's best for women. It seems few countries are able to keep high emotion, vested and political interests out of women's healthcare.
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