I lost a 34 year old niece this afternoon due to cervical cancer. She was diagnosed less than a month ago with stage 4 cancer. She had not been to her OB/GYN for 8 years since the birth of her third child. Had this cancer been detected sooner with a pap smear, she may have been able to survive. The cancer had progressed to a point that there was no options for treating it. She spent the last month of her life regretting her decision not to have regular checkups.
I am sure this is not something that women look forward to doing, but it can help catch this form of cancer when it has a chance of being treated.
Not an easy subject to bring up with your mothers, wives, daughters and others, but it is something that can help keep them with you longer.
Getting this testing done was something she stressed to people that were with her at the end.
Gary