Washington, Nov 20 (THAINDIAN NEWS) After mammograms, it is the turn of pap smears to get some guidelines. Most women in their 20s can have a Pap smear every two years instead of annually, say new guidelines. According to them, that’s quiet enough to catch the slow-growing cervical cancer.

The change by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comes amid another separate debate over when regular mammograms to detect breast cancer should begin, in their 40s and 50s. The timing of the Pap guidelines is coincidence, said ACOG, which began reviewing its recommendations in late 2007 and published the update Friday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. At the same time, critics say that these new guidelines could be a move by the Government to limit cancer screening in order to save costs, as it is going through a recession phase.

However the doctors rebuff all these cost cutting claims and say that the recommendations have been in development for the last several years and the announcement of the new guidelines was coincidental, Dr. Cheryl B. Iglesia, the chairwoman of a panel in the obstetricians’ group that developed the Pap smear guidelines. The timing of the announcement was “an unfortunate perfect storm and there’s no political agenda with regard to these recommendations.”

“You don’t improve cancer detection by doing annual smears in women in the different age groups. Performing the Pap test every other year in women between the ages of 21 and 29, and every three years in women over 30 is just as good as doing the test annually. “There’s no danger in this new guidance,” he said.