Although Pap smear tests are the most excellent way to screen cervical cancer, major cancer groups advice that women should not undergo them annually.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force, who also recommended against routine prostate cancer tests for healthy men, said that for women between the age of 21 and 65, getting the test every three years is sufficient. They also assert that getting tested for the (HPV) in women under the age of 30 need not go in for the tests.

Other than changes to the 2003 recommendations for annual screening the task force also says that there is not enough data to study the pros and cons of separate tests for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. In fact they say that women under the age of 21 need not take the test at all unless she is sexually active after three years of, first, indulging in intercourse.

However, cancer activists say that such tests were, beyond doubt, very necessary.

The task force says that is not bad to be tested for cancer to prevent or treat it. In fact, they say that the risks that come with testing so frequently coupled with the nature of the test does not justify the risks associated with it.

By testing every year, women are subjected to invasive diagnostic procedures that could cause vaginal bleeding, pain and infection. There are some harmless infections that subside on their own. But, testing for them again and again leads to over screening, over managing and over treatment.

Prolonged effects of regular tests could also cause pre–term delivery, and psychological impacts of having to face possible cancer diagnosis.