If you do not meet the eligibility criteria for cervical cancer screening, you may still be able to participate in the other screening programmes (cardiovascular disease risk factors screening programme, colorectal cancer screening programme or breast cancer screening programme) provided that you meet their eligibility criteria.

Ideal time is 14 days after the first day of your menstruation (period).

48 hours before the Pap Smear, you should:

You will be seen by a female nurse at your Health Centre or Well Woman Clinic. You will be asked to undress from your waist down and lie on the examination bed with your legs propped up and open. The female nurse will insert a speculum inside your vagina first to open the vagina allowing the cervix to be seen. A small brush will be used to gently take a sample of the cervical cells. The sample obtained from the brush will be sent to the laboratory for analysis. The procedure will only take a few minutes.

Pap smear is a safe way to screen for cervical cancer. This test might bring slight discomfort to some women during the insertion of the speculum. If you can relax and follow the nurse's instruction, this will make your experience better and easier for the nurse to do the procedure.

Following the procedure, some women will experience slight bleeding or 'spotting' for a few days. Do not be alarmed as this is normal.

Any screening tests/tools used are not 100% accurate or reliable. There is a chance that the test used might not be able to detect a particular disease, leading to false negative result. A false negative result means that the result is normal, when in fact, the person actually has the disease. Cervical cancer may take 10 to 20 years to develop. Therefore, if one test doesn't detect the abnormal cells, there is still a chance that the next test most likely will.

You will be given an appointment 2 weeks after your Pap Smear to get your results.