The recommendations follow this week's similar advice to scale back breast cancer screenings, counsel which raised the ire of doctors, radiologists and breast cancer survivors (including WA Gov. Chris Gregoire) across the country.
Regular Pap smears have reduced cervical cancer by 70 percent in the last 50 years, but doctors now say that the benefits of each Pap smear can be stretched over a longer period of time.
Some doctors and Republicans are wondering if these recommendations -- which would save insurance providers money -- are meant to reduce costs for a national system if Obama's health care reform ambitions are satisfied.
The advisory boards that issued the revised guidelines say that they will help reduce the number of false positives and subsequent unneeded treatment and anxiety.
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