Name: New cervical cancer screening guidelines
Uploaded: 2025-12-04T18:50:57.987Z
Duration: 3 min 54 s
Description: The American Cancer Society has updated its guidelines for cervical cancer screenings. Dr. Jessica Shepherd, the chief medical officer at Hers and a board-certified OB/GYN, joins CBS News with more.

The American Cancer Society has updated its guidelines for cervical cancer screenings. Dr. Jessica Shepherd, the chief medical officer at Hers and a board-certified OB/GYN, joins CBS News with more.

Chicago

The American Cancer Society has updated its guidelines, now recommending that cervical cancer screenings begin at age 25 instead of 21. The new guidance also allows for self-testing, but only within healthcare settings and not at home. These changes may not align with other organizations' recommendations, and concerns remain about missing early cervical changes in younger women.

Additionally, the segment addresses the CDC vaccine panel's upcoming vote on hepatitis B vaccination for newborns. Experts emphasize the importance of early vaccination, noting that the birth dose is highly effective in preventing infection, especially in infants born to infected mothers. The discussion highlights the need for informed decision-making between healthcare providers and parents.

New cervical cancer screening guidelines

The American Cancer Society has just changed its recommendation for cervical cancer screenings. Here to break down those changes is Dr. Jessica Shepard. She is the chief medical officer of hers and a gynecologist. Good to see you, doctor, as always. Good to see you, Vlad. So let's break down what these changes are for our viewers. Yeah, so the changes really are looking at, one, what that age is, which women start to do their cervical cancer screening. And prior to this, the recommendation was at the age of 21. And so what we're seeing now with the new recommendations that came out from the American Cancer Society, starting at the age of 25, and also with that change is, again, with self-testing. Now, what's seen is that self-testing still has to be done in a healthcare setting and is not approved to be at home use. So how are the updated recommendations meant to improve compliance and screening and reduce the risk of cervical cancer? You know, cervical cancer is one of those only cancers, I would say, when we think of the reproductive system, that really has the ability to be eradicated because of screening. So cervical cancer is preventable through regular screening with your doctor. And when we look at the numbers that there used to be in the 70s before the Pap test with the combination of HPV testing was done, this is what we've seen. The rates have fallen by 70%. But obviously, we want that goal to be 100%. Now, with these changes, now, this doesn't always align with some of the other recommendations that we've seen in other organizations such as ACOG and USPSTF. But I do think it can be challenging because when we start at the age of 25, again, we are now taking out women who might be at the age of 21 and may have some cervical changes that could be tended to by their physician. And the other thing is, when we do testing for someone else to do by themselves, there is the potential that what they're screening for, what they're testing by themselves may not be as adequate of what a health care provider might be able to do in the office setting. All right. Let me ask you, doctor, about the CDC vaccine panel, which is now getting ready to vote on changing the hepatitis B shot recommendation for babies. Explain that decision. Explain your thoughts on it and what could be on the way. You know, we have been seeing a lot of different changes with HHS, with this administration. And the goal really is, how do we create the conversation between a health care provider and a patient and or a parent in this instance, where they can get better clarity to make a better decision? Now, hepatitis B is actually primarily transmitted by blood and bodily fluids and is really contagious. And it's also incurable. So the goal with giving these vaccines at birth really has a very important reason. And so when it's given to newborns within the first 24 hours of birth, known as the birth dose, that is up to 90 percent effective at preventing infection if the mother is infected. And if babies receive the full three doses, 98 percent of them have immunity from the illness. So now we're going from an illness which is very contagious and also is incurable to really providing immunity for the baby, which at the time of birth don't really have a really robust immune system. So the goal is, how do we create this conversation for parents to understand to make the best decision for themselves and their newborn? So I think that there's going to be a lot of pushback from the American College of Pediatrics when we look at hepatitis B and trying to eliminate disease versus having to potentially having a transmission of the disease and having an incurable disease that now has to be tended to and also taken care of for an infant. Important information there from Dr. Jessica Shepard. Thank you as always, doctor. We appreciate you.

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