In new guidelines issued Friday, November, 20, 2009, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended that adolescent girls wait until age 21 to get their first pap smear. The ACOG also recommended that women in their 20s have a pap smear every two years, and women 30 and older, have a pap smear every three years. Previously, it was recommended that women over 20 have a yearly pap smear, and teenaged girls begin to have pap smears within three years of their first sexual encounter.

“A review of the evidence to date shows that screening at less frequent intervals prevents cervical cancer just as well, has decreased costs, and avoids unnecessary interventions that could be harmful,” said Dr. Alan Waxman, a physician at the University of New Mexico and head of ACOG’s Committee on Practice Bulletins – Gynecology.

Cervical cancer is slow growing; giving doctors time to find it. And although the HPV infection rate is high among sexually active teenagers and young adults, the virus is typically cleared by the woman’s immune system within a year or two of infection. Few cases of HPV infection lead to cancer; and when they do, the cancer may take up to 10 to 20 years to develop after exposure to the virus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cervical cancer which is primarily caused by infection with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), is rare among teenagers. Each year, only about 14 cases are reported in teenagers in the U.S., compared to 123 cases among women ages 20 to 24.

The American Cancer Society ACS) also supports the guidelines and said it is reviewing new data and updating its own recommendations. The ACS expects to release its new guidelines in late 2011.

For more information, see: http://www.acog.org/departments/dept_notice.cfm?recno=20&bulletin=5021

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