a pap smear is a test used to screen women for cervical cancer or other precancerous lesions of the cervix there are guidelines for how often a woman should have a pap smear perform and these guidelines change occasionally changes may occur based on research and increased knowledge of one of the causes of cervical cancer that being human papilloma virus or HPV as well as the vaccines available to prevent HPV infection it is currently recommended that a woman have her first pap smear at the age of 21 she would continue pap smears every three years if normal until the age of 30 at 30 she would begin to also be tested for HPV and if negative would continue this code testing every 5 years of course when abnormalities arise either in the pap smear itself or if the test is positive for HPV this would necessitate further testing and change your screening frequency to perform a pap smear a speculum is used to visualize the cervix once the cervix is seen a brush is used to brush the cells off of the cervix these cells are switched in fluid and the sample sent to the laboratory and visualized to see if the cells appear to be normal abnormal infected precancerous or even cancerous this sample can also be tested for HPV important to note is that although a pap smear may not be recommended yearly a woman should still present to her gynecologist or women's health clinician for an annual exam