Berman - Figure 9 - Goal of Cervical Cancer Screening (cont'd)
Co-testing, as you have heard, has the potential to increase disease detection. By going to longer screening intervals we do less harm.
There is a psychosocial impact of positive screening test results. When a woman finds out she has an abnormal Pap, she may misunderstand and think she has cancer. I know many of you, as I have, have seen new patients who tell me I have had cervical cancer. I know from their history and lack of invasive treatment that it is unlikely that they had cancer. But what they may have heard or think is that an abnormal Pap result means cervical cancer. We know that for young women it is often the first time something has been wrong, and there is the idea of body betrayal.
Again, we don’t want to find lesions that are mostly transient or will go away without treatment. And we don’t want to incur additional visits and procedures treating things that will likely resolve.
