Millions of Australian women are expected to benefit from improvements in screening for cervical cell abnormalities.
It's estimated that around a million women are overdue for their biennial test.
Experts are urging this group to take part in the updated scheme, which for the first time will screen for the Human Papilloma Virus. (HPV)
Kate Broun is manager of Cancer Screening at Cancer Council Victoria.
Cervical cancer is caused by a sexually acquired infection with certain strains of H-P-V.
Two types alone - 16 and 18 - cause around 70 per cent of cervical cancers and precancerous lesions.
Women will get their first invitation to screen on their 25th birthday.
Director of research at Cancer Council NSW, Professor Karen Canfell, says the changes are good for medical practitioners as well as patients.
"This is about making a good program even better and I think women and their doctors want to see that. I think the second thing is that women will only have to screen nine or 10 times in a lifetime, instead of 26 times in a lifetime, which is what we had to do when we screened every two years with the pap smear. It's really a win-win situation for women and their doctors."
Australia's cervical cancer rate has halved since the National Cervical Screening Program began in 1991.
It's hoped the revamped program will be able to reduce that even further.
"Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are less likely to participate in cervical screening, as are our newly arrived and culturally diverse groups as well. We also do see that women who are disadvantaged by socio-economic status are also less likely to participate."
But Ms Broun says there are still certain sections of the community that are difficult to reach.
"For some people, they've come from country perhaps where cervical screening is not common practice in their country. For some groups of women they're ashamed or embarrassed, and for some women, it's just not top of mind, it's easy to forget, other priorities take place.
"Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are less likely to participate in cervical screening, as are our newly arrived and culturally diverse groups as well. We also do see that women who are disadvantaged by socio-economic status are also less likely to participate."
Health Education Manager at the Multicultural Centre for Women's Health, Amira Rahmanovic says education is key.
"In most of the cases they don't have information, they don't know about it, they don't know about the services in the neighbourhood's where they can go. Sometimes even if they know, they're really scared how all this will look - is it uncomfortable, is it painful, is there going to be a female doctor, all of that."
She says it's also important to create a safe space where they can talk freely.
"We talk about pap smears, and screenings, breast screenings, and all other aspects of women's health in the language of the women and the cultural context, which makes a huge difference because they then feel comfortable asking questions and asking all the things they were reluctant to ask anybody else."
One possible solution, according to Professor Canfell, could be the addition of a "self-collection" option.
"Part of the program that will be introduced next year, it will be phased in in 2018, is an option to have what's called HPV self-collection. This will be for women who are eligible because they're very under-screened, so they do have to be overdue for their screening test, and under the supervision of a practitioner, women will actually be able to take the sample themselves. This is an important new option and it's really going to help us, we hope, increase screening rates in those under-screened groups."
