Cervical cancer develops when the cells in the cervix start growing in an abnormal manner.

It’s mostly caused because of the Human Papilloma Virus or (HPV). It's a sexually transmitted infection and harmless in most cases. But in some severe cases, the HPV causes the cells in the cervix to mutate into cancerous cells.

Cervical screening is important because it can detect changes to the cervical cells. If detection is done early, the cells can be removed easily.

Cervical screening includes a pap smear and the HPV test. Here’s how screening is done:

The technician uses a brush to remove cells from the cervix. In a pap test, the cells are observed if they’re cancerous or not.

The sample obtained from the cervix is tested for the presence of 13-14 strains of virus.

Women aged between 21-29 must undergo a pap test once in 3 years. Once women have crossed 30 years, it’s recommended that they also undergo a HPV test and a pap test once in 5 years apart from the regular pap test they undergo once in 3 years.

Women can stop pap tests once they’ve crossed 65 years if they didn’t have a history of cervical cancer cells.

They can also stop testing if their pap tests came out negative thrice in a row and both HPV and pap tests came out negative twice.