Dear all,

I have a question about pap smears in your country. We have searched the archives on
pap smears, but didn't find the answer we are looking for, therefore I am posting my
question.

In our country, GP's take pap smears on a 5-yearly basis from all women over 30.
Except when they are pregnant or lactating.
Most GP's just don't do it when a women is pregnant or lactating because it is in their
guideline. I think this guideline about not taking pap smears while lactating passed
because most women in the Netherlands only breastfeed for a couple of months. But
some women who breastfeed for a long time or have several children on a row
pregnant-bf-pregnant-bf, can go without a pap smear for a very long time, which can be
risky.
There is one head of a pap smear laboratory who says this is appalling and women
should have their pap smear and just make a note on their form that they are lactating
so the laboratory can pay more attention to the cells, but she seems to be the only one
and if your particular GP doesn't do pap smears on lactating women, you could go
without a test in ages.

We would like to try and change the guidelines, and to be well prepared, we would like
to know how this is done in other countries.

Thank you for your help!
--
Heleen Hayes
www.xs4all.nl/~hhayes

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