The Government is wrong to refuse cervical cancer screening to those under 25, the British Medical Association said today.

Doctors voted three to one that women should be screened for cervical cancer from the age of 20 a week after the Department of Health refused to lower the starting age.

Charities have been calling for younger women to be screened in light of the death of 27-year-old Jade Goody in March. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, women attend screening from the age of 20 and used to in England up until 2003.

Proposing the motion at the BMA’s annual conference in Liverpool, Dr Mary McCarthy, a GP from Staffordshire, said the number of women attending smear tests has dropped 10 per cent in the last 10 years.

“The poorest attenders - at 72 per cent - are those in the younger age group,” she said. “The high-profile illness and death of Jade Goody has led to an increase in requests for screening in this age group. A 24-year-old with a family history of early cervical cancer who asks for screening is made more anxious by the information that she is too young and has to wait a year.

“Is it ethical to refuse these women a smear when it is possible to pick up changes to the cervix at a stage early enough to effect a cure?”

Kate Bramall, a GP from North London, also backed the motion, saying patients in the UK faced a “postcode lottery”.

Voting against the motion, Dr Surendra Kumar, a GP from Widnes, said he was “utterly convinced” by the evidence against lowering the screening age. He sat on the independent Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening (ACCS), which was ordered by the Government and met earlier this year.

The panel agreed unanimously for no change in the screening age, saying evidence showed earlier screening could do “more harm than good”, causing too many false positives and increasing the risk of premature births among some women.

Dr Kumar rejected arguments that young women were being sent the wrong message by the Government about screening.

“We are the doctors and we are the ones who are in a position to tell them what is right for them,” he said.

“Even if a women under the age of 25 is prepared to take the risk and have a test, my view is we have to ask why she wants one.”

In England in 2006, a total of 56 cases of women under the age of 25 had cervical cancer diagnosed.

Doctors today also voted in favour of vaccinating boys as well as girls against cervical cancer. Currently, only young girls are being given the jab to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes around 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases and genital warts. HPV is a sexually-transmitted disease and is carried by both males and females.

Responding to the BMA’s calls for screening of women from the age of 20, Ann Keen, the Health Minister, said she had met with a number of young women who have cervical cancer.

“I have listened carefully and I am determined to make sure that our policy is in their best interests.

That is why I asked the ACCS to carry out a review into the cervical screening age because I wanted to make sure that our guidelines are based on the latest available clinical evidence.” She said that the decision not to lower the screening age was the right one, but more work was needed around the treatment of symptomatic patients to ensure cases are diagnosed at the earliest possible opportunity.

“There has been a big public debate about this issue and a great deal of publicity about the causes and symptoms of cervical cancer,” she said. “Together we can build on this work to help even more women across the country to take steps to prevent the disease and to identify symptoms early and save lives.”

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