Are Young Women Getting Unnecessary Medical Care?

The annual pelvic examination in otherwise healthy women is considered part of the well-woman visit. Similarly, Pap-smear is performed for cervical cancer screening among sexually active women. Screening for cervical cancer is not recommended for women younger than 21 years, a consensus reached by the US Preventive Services Task Force, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Cancer Society. The general recommendation is against performing pelvic examinations in asymptomatic, nonpregnant women younger than 21 years. However, young women are still undergoing such exams during their physical examinations.

How big is the problem of these unnecessary exams? Qin et al has recently published their findings using the National Survey of Family Growth. They estimated that between 2011 and 2017, an estimated 2.6 million women aged 15 to 20 years in the United States (22.9%) received a pelvic examination in the past year, and 54.4% of these examinations were potentially unnecessary. Further, an estimated 2.2 million young women (19.2%) received a Pap-smear test in the past year, and 71.9% of these tests were potentially unnecessary.