Getting regular cervical screenings in order to assess your risk for human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a major part of staying on top of your health—particularly given that the rate of cervical cancer is increasing among women in their thirties and forties—but let’s be real: taking a trip to the gynecologist isn’t always the most relaxing of pursuits, especially given that the commonly given, even-more-commonly-dreaded pelvic exam can frequently retrigger patients who are survivors of sexual assault (as, indeed, roughly one in four women are.) Luckily, an increasingly rare piece of good news has emerged on the reproductive-health front; on Monday, the first self-collection tests for HPV ver to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were shipped to U.S. laboratories.
Approximately 11,500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in America each year, and the statistics on HPV are even more wide-ranging; 80 percent of sexually active women will be infected with HPV in their lifetime, although it’s important to note that only around 50% of those infections involve higher-risk HPV types that can lead to cervical or other cancers. (Remember the Girls line about how “all adventurous women” have HPV? I know it was a joke, but it definitely made me feel better when I first got diagnosed!)
Although getting regular pap smears is important for a variety of reasons besides assessing your HPV risk if you’re 21 or over, giving people the option to collect their own vaginal samples at home feels like a relatively small yet important shift in how we empower women to engage with and remain in control of their own physical health. As of now, just two healthcare businesses—biotechnology company Roche and medical technology firm BD—are making the FDA-approved at-home tests available, but as we stare down the barrel of a second Trump presidency that promises to worsen the already-dismal state of reproductive rights in the U.S., it’s encouraging to see the advent of an at-home HPV self-test as a sorely needed tool in the hands of women who inherently deserve more agency than the still-misogynistic health care industry has traditionally offered them.
