New cervical cancer screening guidelines

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The American Cancer Society now recommends self-testing for HPV, which leads to cervical and other cancers, rather than getting HPV tests done by healthcare providers.

"About a quarter of women in the US are currently not up to date with cervical cancer screening. In some areas, including rural parts of the US, which is very relevant to Virginia, about half of women are not up to date with the screening. So, any way that we can increase screening by lowering the barriers to screening is going to be very important. And one way to do that is have women self-test," said Dr. Andrew Wolf, primary care physician at UVA and co-author for American Cancer Society's new screening guidelines.