Pap smears are an uncomfortable, awkward and even painful process for many women. But they’re an essential tool in the fight against cervical cancer.
One London-based startup thinks tampons could help make testing far more tolerable.
Cervical cancer is a devastating disease that affects hundreds of thousands of women every year. It’s thought to have taken around 350,000 lives globally in 2022, according to the World Health Organization.
But it can be prevented with vaccines and cured when caught early.
Like dozens of other countries, England wants to eliminate the disease, with leaders in November pledging to eradicate it by 2040.
To do so, the country will need to improve rates of screening. In 2022-23, only 68.7% of women in England were up to date with their cervical smears, down from 69.9% the year before.
Countries need to screen 70% of women by age 35 and again by 45 — as well as vaccinate a high proportion of girls and provide prompt treatment — to eliminate cervical cancer, the World Health Organization states.
What causes cervical cancer?
The disease is almost always caused by infection with human papillomavirus.
Usually passed on through sexual contact, HPV is extremely common.
In most cases, it doesn’t cause any symptoms and clears up on its own. In fact, most adults will catch some type of HPV at some point, but many will never know they’ve had it.
But persistent cases of certain types of HPV can sometimes cause cervical cancer.
How does screening work?
Many countries — including England — are rolling out what’s called HPV primary testing for cervical screening.
This involves a regular cervical smear procedure, the sample from which is tested for high-risk HPV.
If high-risk HPV is detected, the sample will then be tested for cell changes. If changes are present, they will be monitored further, as certain changes can develop into cancer.
Gynae-health startup Daye thinks its tampon-based HPV tests could help support testing in the U.K.
Why tampons?
Pap smears (known simply as “cervical smears” in the U.K.) are typically performed by a clinician and usually require the use of a speculum. Tampons, on the other hand, are familiar to many women and can be self-administered at home.
Users then mail their sample to a lab for testing, before receiving their results digitally.
A 2017 survey by U.K. charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust found that more than a third of young women were embarrassed to go for their test because of body image issues. In fact, 35% said they would delay their appointments out of embarrassment.
Researchers who published a small study using Daye’s tampons last year suggested self-testing options may help women who are embarrassed to attend in-person screening appointments.
Although the tampons themselves aren’t currently used by the national screening programme, Daye says users who test positive for high risk HPV can take their results to their family doctor, who can refer them for colposcopy or further testing under the public health system.
The diagnostic tampons are part of an entrepreneurship scheme commissioned by England’s public health system.
The National Health Service Innovation Accelerator supports the development of solutions that improve patient outcomes and reduce costs to the NHS.
Although it doesn’t guarantee adoption across the health system, it is designed to help entrepreneurs understand how their products could be used by the NHS and support the development of relationships within the service.
The company told me this endorsement “underscores the clinical validity and potential of Daye’s product to transform cervical cancer screening.”
The firm, which already offers tampon tests for sexually transmitted diseases alongside a range of vaginal wellness products, was started by Valentina Milanova, who featured in the Europe edition of last year’s 30 Under 30 list.
She said in a statement: “Eliminating cervical cancer by 2040 requires a joined-up approach of vaccination, screening and testing, and we hope to encourage more women and assigned-female-at-birth individuals to proactively test for HPV.”
