Today, 08:56 • 2 minutes reading time
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Women who receive an invitation to participate in the cervical cancer population screening must also immediately be sent a self-sampling kit. This is stated in an advice from the Health Council.
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And that’s a good idea, thinks Bea Wisman of the UMCG. She has been involved in cervical cancer research for 25 years. ‘Just get tested. Because if we detect the disease at an early stage, it can be treated well.’
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‘The result is just as reliable when you do a self-test. It works just like the smear at the doctor. Both work equally well.’ With a positive self-test, women still have to go to the GP for follow-up examination.
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Threshold to go to the doctor
About eight hundred women a year are confronted with cervical cancer, one in four dies from it. By lowering the threshold for participation in the population screening in this way, more cases of cervical cancer can be detected early.
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Women are busy and sometimes it just ends
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By also sending the self-sampling test, the threshold for women to participate in the population screening can be significantly lowered.
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‘It turns out that going to the GP for a Pap smear is a barrier,’ says Wisman. ‘That has to do with shame, for example, or with the culture. But also time, women are busy and sometimes it just stops there.’
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‘More women will participate’
Wisman: ‘About 50 to 60 percent of women only participate in the population screening, which is of course far too low. Ideally you want all women to participate. Until now, women had to request the self-test themselves. Although it was mentioned in the invitation letter. Now that it is advised to send him in immediately, I think more women will participate.’
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The Ministry of Health says it is studying the advice and expects to come up with a response before the end of the year.
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