Although the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently recommended that women begin cervical cancer screening at age 21, "the advice seems odd" considering that one in four U.S. teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection, columnist Cheryl Wetzstein writes in the Washington Times. "I would think medical professionals would urge every American woman who is single and sexually active to run, not walk, to a doctor's office every few months for a genital checkup," she continues. Wetzstein adds, "This goes double for teens and college-age girls" because there is a "strong likelihood such women will acquire" an STI and "because the most commonly reported [STI] usually doesn't have warning symptoms, and a woman can lose her ability to conceive a baby before she knows it."

According to Wetzstein, reported chlamydia cases are at a record 1.2 million. Chlamydia is treatable with antibiotics, and some doctors have begun testing women for the STI during Pap tests, so "if no woman younger than 21 is getting a Pap, the natural opportunity to give her a chlamydia test evaporates too," Wetzstein writes. She adds that chlamydia "is a fairly fast-moving infection and within months can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease" (Wetzstein, Washington Times, 12/1).

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