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Don't be telling Dr. Kim Collins you don't have time for your Pap test, or that it's uncomfortable, or that you don't like going to the doctor. She's not buying those excuses.

“Just woman up and do it,” Collins said.

Collins, an obstetrician/gynecologist with Women's Care Group in Maryville, said the importance of having a Pap test cannot be overemphasized. This simple test can detect potential problems in their earliest stages, allowing treatment to begin before the condition becomes cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a slow growing cancer caused by certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), an extremely common sexually transmitted disease among women and men.

Cervical cancer has no warning signs in early stages. This is why Pap tests are so important. In the Papanicolaou (Pap) test, cells are gathered from the cervix and then examined closely under a microscope for abnormalities. Collins said cervical cancer rates in the United States have fallen more than 50 percent in the past 30 years thanks to the widespread use of the Pap test.

New guidelines for Pap screenings were released in December 2009. Rather than an annual Pap test, women ages 21 to 29 may be screened every two years, and women 30 and above every three years as long as they have had three negative Paps in row. Collins emphasized that an annual physical exam is still indicated because it involves much more than the one test.

According to the Tennessee Department of Health, risk factors for cervical cancer include high-risk sexual behavior; a personal and/or family history of cervical cancer; cigarette smoking; and previous HPV infection. African-American women are more prone to develop cervical cancer than Caucasian and Hispanic women are.

As for having Pap tests, Collins won't accept any excuses for avoiding them.

“I tell my patients this about mammograms and Pap tests,” Collins said. “Is this your favorite thing to do? No. But, when they say this is painful or uncomfortable, my response is, ‘Not as uncomfortable as surgery and radiation and chemotherapy.' There are worse things. If you eventually get diagnosed, you're headed for far more discomfort and pain.”