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Ministers are to review the age at which women in England are screened for cervical cancer.

An expert panel will report later this year on whether women aged 20-24 should be offered smear tests, as they are in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In 2003, screening in England was moved to start at 25 as it was felt it did more harm than good in younger women. There have been calls to lower screening age following the high-profile case of Jade Goody.



BBC NEWS | Health | Smear test age 'to be reviewed'



The amount of under 25 year olds we see in Wales with positive results, im sure England will be following suit.



Well done Jade:-4

My daughter wnet and asked for one,, she has been with her boyfriend since 17 and is now 22,, although has had no children. But her fraternal grandmother died from ovarian cancer, and an aunt had cervical cancer but that was caught early thank god:D she has also had a couple of small concerns that way healthwise. they gave her a smear test,, but she has phoned them to ask for asurance that it will be tested as she heard stories of the labs just not testing any smears from under 25 yr olds. The docs have re-assured her it will be done because of family history and they also recommended changing her contraceptive

It's never a pleasant experience, especially for young women and they get so embarrassed. Still, it's a minor irritation for peace of mind. A lot of people think of cancer as being an older persons disease, and do not give it a lot of thought. I was found to have an "abnormal" result at the age of 24, well thank goodness that test detected it and was dealt with very quickly indeed. That was almost 12 years ago.