Annual Exams / Pap Smears / Cancer Screenings
Health Services provides annual gynecological exams and Pap smears. If a student has paid her health fee, gynecological exams are available at no cost. The cost for a Pap smear is $15 and can be billed to your insurance through our Business Office.
A gynecological exams, including a pelvic examination, is recommended yearly beginning at age 18 or when you become sexually active.
The first yearly Pap smear (cervical cancer screening test) is recommended three years after you begin having sex with a male. This applies even if you have stopped having sex. The reason for these new recommendations is that you are most likely to become infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) when first having sex. Usually your body will get rid of this virus on its own over time. While your body is "dealing" with the virus, your Pap smear may be abnormal. For most women, the first exam is less frightening than they expected and they are often glad that they have completed it.
Abnormal Pap smears need in-depth evaluation, which is invasive and expensive and which may later prove to have been unnecessary. Since the cervix often heals itself. This is the reason for the recommendation that Pap smears be delayed for most women until three years after having sex with a male.
In addition, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends yearly chlamydia testing for sexually active women under the age of 26. Testing for other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) may also be recommended by your clinical provider.
Remember, you still need a yearly women's health exam (and chlamydia testing if you are currently or have been sexually active with men in the past), even if you don’t need a Pap smear yet.
Annual exams for initiation of hormonal contraception is not required by Health Services.
