Reply to Problems with American healthcare - Too many drugs/too many screening tests

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP, thank you for posting that.  They recommend every 3 years for women age 21-65.  I've been to several different OBs over the past few years and they all insist on yearly paps.

I wonder why there is a disconnect.  It can't just be about money.  How much money can OBs possibly be making on a pap smear?

I will definitely save that link and use it the next time they want to scrape away at my cervix.[/quote]

[b]Because its a relatively inexpensive and relatively non invasive that could save your life. [/b]
[/quote]

Pap screens are invasive, I'm not sure where you are getting that it is not. It is the internal scraping of your cervix. Cervical cancer is very rare compared to other diseases that kill women. False positives are common and lead to further invasive procedures that carry risks. 
I read an article discussing the possibility of the yearly scraping increasing the risks of premature delivery in women. This is one of the reasons they recommend that pap screens start at a later age and not at 18.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/11/informed-consent-missing-pap-smears-cervical-cancer-screening.html[/quote]

I was going to say the same thing.  Not sure about the PP, but I find pap smears pretty invasive!

Definitely capitalism at play here also.  The companies who manufacture/assess these screening tests (Pap smears/PSA tests) want patients and doctors to do more and more of them so that they can make more money!  Radiology centers that have spent tons of money on mammography equipment or CT machines need to get a ROI.  If they have the CT scans, and the people to run them, the more of them they do a day, the more profit they are making.  Having the machines sitting there unused is useless.

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