Study in this week's BMJ concludes:
Cervical screening in women aged 20-24 has little or no impact on rates of invasive cervical cancer up to age 30. Some uncertainly still exists regarding its impact on advanced stage tumours in women under age 30. By contrast, screening older women leads to a substantial reduction in incidence of and mortality from cervical cancer. These data should help policy makers balance the impact of screening on cancer rates against its harms, such as overtreatment of lesions with little invasive potential.
Evidence-based guidelines would be great if someone could figure out a way to get physicians to read and implement them.
Sirovich BE, Welch HG. Cervical cancer screening among women without a cervix. JAMA. 2004 Jun 23;291(24):2990-3.
From the abstract:
"Most US women who have undergone hysterectomy are not at risk of cervical cancer-they underwent the procedure for benign disease and they no longer have a cervix. In 1996, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended that routine Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening is unnecessary for these women....CONCLUSIONS: Many US women are undergoing Pap smear screening even though they are not at risk of cervical cancer. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations either have not been heard or have been ignored."
Full text here:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/291/24/2990