Since most cervical cancer is caused by infection with a virus, when should screening start? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Women may now choose to collect their own samples to test for human papilloma virus, or HPV as part of their screening regimen for cervical cancer, the American Cancer Society now says. Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson at Johns Hopkins says it’s worth looking at a history of exposure in order to decide when to start screening.

Nelson: When should you start? You really don't need to start this kind of testing probably until you're age 25 and the reason for that is that in women who are not vaccinated many of them get infections. If you tested for HPV you'd find those infections. Most women clear those infections without any problem and so you'd be subjecting them to a whole bunch of stuff that they don't need because they're just going to clear the infection. You want to know the ones that couldn't clear the infection, get chronically infected and were at risk to get CIN or cancer.                   :29

Nelson says deciding when to stop cervical cancer screening is also important, as the disease does sometimes show up in older women, so it’s something to bring up with your provider. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.