About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risks
By Mayo Clinic staffA Pap smear is a safe way to screen for cervical cancer. However, a Pap smear isn't foolproof. It's possible to receive false-negative results — meaning that the test indicates no abnormality, even though you do have abnormal cells.
A false-negative result doesn't mean that a mistake was made. Factors that can cause a false-negative result include:
- An inadequate collection of cells
- A small number of abnormal cells
- Blood or inflammatory cells obscuring the abnormal cells
Although it's possible for abnormal cells to go undetected, time is on your side. Cervical cancer takes several years to develop. And if one test doesn't detect the abnormal cells, the next test most likely will.
- The Pap test. American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp085.cfm. March 17, 2010.
- Pap test. WomensHealth.gov. http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/pap-test.cfm. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Cervical cytology screening. American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2009;114:1409.
- Smith RA, et al. Cancer screening in the United States, 2010: A review of current American Cancer Society guidelines and issues in cancer screening. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 2010;60:99.
- Screening for cervical cancer. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/3rduspstf/cervcan/cervcanrr.htm. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Sirovich BE, et al. Screening for cervical cancer. http://www.uptodate.com. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Cervical cancer screening. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/cervical_screening.pdf. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Gallenberg MM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 18, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on