A screening test (or medical selection) used to perceive cancerous development in the endocervical canal of reproductive system of female is known as Pap smear test (also known as Papanicolaou test or cervical smear test). It is also used to detect the viral infections of the urinogenital system and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). In this procedure, a sample of cells are taken from the female cervix and smeared on the slide that further diagnosed under the microscope. The pre-malignant and malignant variations are checked under the microscope by an expert cytotechnologist. Without causing any sorts of disease or noticeable symptoms, various infections and abnormal cells are present. It is very essential for a woman to have a regular checkup or diagnosis of their parts of reproductive system, in order to avoid any severe problems.

Pap smear procedure is conducted when the women is not in the menstruation period for accurate results. This procedure can also be done with liquid based techniques for situations where a woman is pregnant, is menstruating or just had intercourse. As any liquid material such as mucus, blood or semen may effect in providing inadequate results. It is an easy, relatively fast process and do not provide any kind of pain to the patient. A spectrum is a kind of equipment used to take cervical cells from the vagina and with the help of spatula it is transferred into the glass side for further experimental analysis. The sensitivity of Pap smear test is not very appropriate, which means women having regular results can also have cervical cancer. If the result comes positive, it indicates that the test requires further laboratory analysis for the detection of pre- malignant and malignant variations.

Pap smear test is only for the detection of cervical cancer and not any other form of cancer. Even for those women who are pregnant, this test can be safely done. If the result for this test comes out to be positive, then some other tests are also prescribed by respective physician such as method for testing cervix an even biopsy is required for further diagnosis, so that the proper treatment for this can be started. For healthy and easy living, the test of Pap smear is recommended by doctors for women in their age starting from 20’s and should only be stopped in 70+ age if the previous results comes negative or perfectly normal.

Earlier when Pap smear test is not introduced, cervical cancer is one of the main causes of death for women as no one was aware of such kind of method. Even now, without the regular checkup it is not as useful as it could be. The result from this screening test is basically dependent on the amount of sample of cells collected from the cervix or vaginal areas. An expert or trained physician can also collect inadequate sample, therefore in order to make the diagnosis successful and avoid this disease one should also have repeated tests.