Cervical Screening
You can choose if you take part in cervical screening. Your guide to NHS cervical screening aims to help you decide. Cervical screening used to be called a ‘smear test’.
Changes to Cervical Screening from 1st July 2025
What is changing?
Before July in England, women and people with a cervix aged 25-49 years are routinely invited for cervical screening every 3 years. But now we have a better test for HPV, the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) has recommended that those testing negative won’t need to come for a cervical screening quite so often – every 5 years instead of every 3. If your cervical screening shows you have HPV, you may be invited for more frequent screenings to monitor any cell changes.
Why are cervical screening intervals changing?
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) causes nearly all cervical cancers. We now use a test which is more sensitive and accurate than the previous method (smear test) to look for HPV in your sample. This helps us offer a more personalised approach by finding out who is at higher risk of developing the cervical cell changes that over time, if left untreated, could lead to cervical cancer. This change from 3 to 5 yearly screening is backed by robust scientific evidence – studies have shown that if you test negative for HPV you are extremely unlikely to go on to develop cervical cancer within the next 10 years. So now we have this better test, you don’t need to be screened as often if you don’t have HPV.
When is this change happening?
This is happening from 1st July 2025 – so anyone who is screened on or after this date, and tests negative for HPV, will move to 5 yearly screening unless previous screening history suggests they should be screened more regularly. If you are being screened before 1 July 2025 and test negative for HPV, you will stay on the current 3 yearly recall until you’re next due a screen in 3 years’ time.
Will everyone move onto this new 5 yearly screening pathway automatically?
No. Next test due dates will not be changed retrospectively; you will be invited at the interval in which you were advised of at the time of your last test. Only those who attend cervical screening on or after 1 July, and meet the clinical criteria, will have their next test due date set at 5 years. NHS England made this decision based on clinical advice from experts. Those aged 50 to 64 are already invited every 5 years.
So will everyone aged 25-49 move to a 5 year screening if they test negative after 1 July?
No, not everyone. If your test result is negative but your last test (taken within the last 5 years) showed an HPV positive result, you will still be invited for screening in 3 years time so that we can continue to monitor your HPV status. If you test negative for HPV at that next test, then you’ll move to 5 year screening.
What happens if I test positive for HPV?
It’s important to remember that having HPV does not mean that you have or will develop cervical cancer. It is a common virus that most people will have at some point in their life without knowing, which usually goes away on its own. If HPV is found in your sample and there are no cell changes, you are invited for screening again in 1 year. If cell changes are found alongside HPV, you are referred directly to a hospital clinic for a colposcopy to check the cervix more closely. Further follow up and treatment will depend on the colposcopy findings.