Women with abnormal smears need more reassurance

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study shows that women worry more than they need to if they have a slightly abnormal smear.
Having regular cervical smears is a proven way of reducing deaths from cervical cancer. However, many slightly abnormal smears are not linked to cancer. A team at Aberdeen University has looked at how women react if they are told that they have an abnormal cervical smear.

They measured anxiety levels among over 3,500 women with slightly abnormal smear results and found that 23 per cent of them had clinically significant anxiety while another 20 per cent were possible cases of clinical anxiety. The researchers suggest that these women may not properly understand the meaning of their results and assume that any abnormality means cancer. In fact, most slightly abnormal smears revert to normal by themselves. And if a woman has to be treated for an abnormal smear, she is then most unlikely to develop cancer. In other words, in the vast majority of cases, an abnormal smear is not a cause for concern. It's important women are reassured on this score - as unnecessary anxiety could deter them from attending for a smear test.

Source
British Journal of Cancer 2nd May 2006

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