US health panel adds self-testing option for cervical cancer screening

Women should have the option of taking their own test samples for cervical cancer screening, an influential health panel said Tuesday.

Draft recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are aimed at getting more people screened and spreading the word that women can take their own vaginal samples to check for cancer-causing HPV.

Women in their 20s should still get a Pap test every three years. But after that — from age 30 to 65 — women can get an HPV test every five years, the panel said.

And those HPV tests can be done with samples collected either by a doctor or by the patient herself in a mobile clinic or medical office. Women ages 30 to 65 can still opt for a Pap test done by a doctor every three years, or a Pap plus an HPV test every five years.