← Return to Pap Smears after age 65

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Pap Smears after age 65

Women's Health | Last Active: Apr 17, 2024 | Replies (17)

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@cavlover

I had cryotherapy 30 years ago. Not sure if I had an abnormal Pap smear in the following 5 years. I feel like I may have had an abnormal reading 5 years after the cryotherapy, but I had a second reading and it ended up being normal. So that was about 25 years ago.

I do know that the preceding ten years from today, they were all negative.

This is from Mayo Clinic:
In general, women older than age 65 don’t need Pap testing if their previous tests were negative and they have had three Pap tests, or two combined Pap and HPV tests, in the preceding 10 years. However, there are situations in which a health care provider may recommend continued Pap testing.

Women with a history of cervical cancer or high-grade, abnormal Pap tests over the past 20 years should continue cervical cancer screening.

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Replies to "I had cryotherapy 30 years ago. Not sure if I had an abnormal Pap smear in..."

Well I’m glad I had a GYN who didn’t care when my abnormal pap in the past was. And she couldn’t look at the past 10 years of pap results because no one did one.
I have a friend who is a hospice nurse and she says the incidence of vulvar cancer in old women would shock us.