Dr Amir Khan

I can still do it no matter what.

So don't wait till after your period or whatever.

Just come and see us.

We will sort it out.

Yeah, that's a really good question.

So when we're looking at screening in general, it has to be a test that is accessible and acceptable for the person going through it.

It also has to be cost effective and it has to detect...

cancer or early changes or something that puts you at risk of cancer at a stage where actually early intervention makes a big difference.

And it has to be very specific as well.

So that abnormality, if there's a high risk, it could mean that you could develop cancer or you've got cancer.

There's lots of different reasons that come together to make us think actually, yes, this is a good, effective screening tool.

And cervical smears is a big one because they genuinely, genuinely save lives.

Now, we don't really call it smears anymore because we're not smearing anything.

We used to, but not anymore.

I know.

Smear test.

But it's an old school name.

It is screening now.

And one of the biggest misconceptions that lots of people have is that when we're doing a cervical screen, we're actually looking for early changes or cancer cells.

We're only testing for the human papillomavirus, HPV.