Recently, there have been debates on whether the Government should lower the age for cervical cancer screening from 25 to 18.
Every year, in the UK, more than 3,200 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and nearly 900 die annually. Yet despite these statistics, one in four women skip their cervical screening.
As a result of this a petition has successfully accumulated more than 130,000 signatures, meaning that on Monday, MPs will be debating whether the recommended age for women receiving smear tests should be lowered.
Natasha Sale launched the petition after being diagnosed with metastatic cervical cancer
She expressed that the age for smear tests should be lowered to 18 “to enable all women to detect cell changes and prevent cancer”.
“If I can do anything with my life I want to make this change happen, it’s too late for me but it’s not too late for the next generation of young ladies,” she wrote on the petition’s webpage before passing away at the age of 31 in December 2018.
In September 2018, the Government released a statement regarding their views on the petition, which read: “The Government accepted the UK National Screening Committee recommendation that the first invitation for cervical screening should be offered at age 25 based on the assessment of research evidence.
“Public Health England has been running ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaigns since 2011. These are designed to raise the public’s awareness of specific cancer symptoms; encourage people with those symptoms to go to the doctor, and diagnose cancer at an earlier stage, and therefore make it more treatable, and thereby improve cancer survival rates.”
According to the NHS, women under the age of 25 won’t usually receive a request to have a smear test due to the rarity of the disease among the age group.
They said “While HPV infection is very common in women under 25, their immune systems will often clear the infection and the abnormal cells will go back to normal without treatment,”
If you would like more information on cervical screening then head to the dedicated section of our website which can be found at https://goo.gl/yvLpM
