ACS: Start pap tests by age 21, May end at age 70: women over 30 with three normal tests in a row can be screened every 2-3 years. (American Cancer Society).

The American Cancer Society has issued new guidelines that call for young women to begin cervical cancer screening by age 21 and give selected older women the option of stopping screening at age 70.

The guidelines, issued last month by an expert panel convened by the ACS, state that adolescents should be screened no later than 3 years after they first become sexually active or at age 21, whichever comes first. Earlier ACS guidelines suggested that they should be screened by age 18.

Addressing older women, the guidelines recommend that those who are at least 70 years of age and have had at least three normal Pap test results and no abnormal results in the last 10 years may choose to stop cervical cancer screening. In addition, the ACS now recommends that healthy women over the age of 30 who have had three normal Pap smear results in a row can be screened every 2-3 years.

The guidelines have garnered support from several medical groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

The following points are some of the guideline highlights:

* Screening in young women. The move to begin screening by age 21 instead of 18 should encourage more adolescents to get proper gynecologic care, Dr. Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancer at the ACS in Atlanta, said.

"So many adolescents have mild changes [in the appearance of the cervix] that are going to go away on their own," she said. "But although somewhere between 70% and 90% of changes will disappear, once doctors find them, it's very tough to say, 'Let's wait and see.' So you get all these adolescents who get repeatedly screened and sent for colposcopies and biopsies. They may end up not being able to get pregnant or not being able to complete a pregnancy and they get turned off Pap screening."