January Is Cervical Health Awareness Month

The Wyoming Department of Health is reminding women to take steps to reduce their risk of cervical cancer.

Carol Peterson of the Wyoming Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program says there has been significant progress in the fight against cervical cancer in recent year.

But a state Health Department report says Wyoming is ranked low at 45th in the nation for women reporting they had at least one Pap test in the past three years.

Wyoming currently has a 78.3 percent Pap test screening rate, compared to the national median of 81.2 percent.

Wyoming's current cervical cancer incidence rate of 8.62 is higher than the U.S. incidence rate of 7.88 per. And the state's cervical cancer death rate of 2.99 is higher than the U.S. death rate of 2.17.