In this episode we speak to Dr Anita Lim who is a Senior Research Fellow, School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences at King’s College London.

Paper: Non-speculum sampling approaches for cervical screening in older women: randomised controlled trial

https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0350

Inadequately screened women aged 50 and older are at a disproportionately higher risk of cervical cancer and dying from it. Speculum use is a major barrier to cervical screening and can become more uncomfortable with ageing and the menopause. Although self-sampling has been hailed as a game-changer for cervical screening, it does not appeal to all women. This study showed that offering a choice of non-speculum clinician sampling or self-sampling substantially increased cervical screening uptake in older lapsed attendees across all ethnicities, an approach which could be easily implemented into existing practice in primary care.