Older single women think cervical cancer screening 'irrelevant'

Nearly one in three older women think that cervical cancer screening is "unnecessary" and "irrelevant," a health charity has warned.

A survey of 2397 women aged 50 to 70 for Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust found that 31 per cent of women thought that not all women needed to be screened for cervical cancer.

Women who were single, separated and divorced were more likely to never have been screened, compared to women who were married or in a relationship, according to the charity.

For the first time in ten years, the proportion of women screened for cervical cancer in England in 2010 fell below 80 per cent. A similar downward trend has been observed in Scotland and Wales.

According to Robert Music, director of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, two thirds of the women surveyed were also unaware that cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted.

Two viruses - HPV 16 and 18 - cause 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer.

He said: "Divorce rates amongst this group of women are rising dramatically as rates fall for all other ages and our survey showed women in the single, separated and divorced groups who were most likely to say the screening invitation seemed irrelevant.

"Over half of women (51%) in this age group told us they thought cervical cancer was caused by having multiple sexual partners and almost one in five thought it was hereditary (18%).

"We clearly need to remind women that they can have one sexual partner and still be at risk from HPV."

Experts have estimated that the NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme saves around 4,500 lives each year.

A recent NHS report found that 56 per cent of women aged 50 to 64 with fully invasive cancer had not been screened within seven years, compared with only 16 per cent of women without the condition.

Mr Music also said that some older women had reported that a bad experience of screening in the past had led them to delaying, or failing to book screening.

He said: "These results around screening are worrying enough but when you also see that only 11% of the women we surveyed knew all the symptoms of Cervical Cancer, the potential impact of a lack of education around cervical cancer on the health of women in this age group becomes even greater.“

"These figures highlight why we are now seeing drop-offs in screening uptake in the over 50s. It is of real concern that misinformation and myth prevail while the accurate information is just not connecting.

"There is a desperate need for us to find ways to improve women’s understanding of the causes of Cervical Cancer and the action they can take to help reduce their risk. This could, quite simply, save their lives."

This article was published on Mon 23 January 2012