A petition claiming changes to cervical screening will put women's lives at risk is "woefully misinformed and misguided", the head of the Australian Medical Association has said.
By Thursday afternoon, the change.org petition had attracted more than 67,000 signatures.
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The petition calls on the government to scrap plans to extend pap smear screening from two years to five. It also wants the government to dump plans to increase the suggested age for screening from 18 to 25.
The changes are due to start on May 1.
"May 1st will see changes that will put women's lives at risk but save the government money," wrote Isabella Rossi, who launched the petition last week. "How can there be early detection when the time between pap smears has been extended by three years."
Ms Rossi, a 26-year-old from Adelaide who works in insurance, told Fairfax Media she had drafted the petition after her GP and a nurse in his practice told her they were worried about the changes.
"I was concerned and worried, and I didn't know about it and no one seemed to know about it," she said.
"The changes were made and nobody had any idea. I'd love someone to be able to get down on our level and explain the testing."
![Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Association.](/web/20170226031049im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/c/2/l/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gujtda.png/1487834637729.jpg)
Comments in support of the petition included two women who said they had been diagnosed with cervical cancer at 16 and 23. "I had stage one cervical cancer, which was found in my pap smear and the fact that we are leaving it even longer petrifies me," one of the woman wrote. "I had no symptoms. I was 23."
Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Association and head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St John of God Subiaco, issued a formal response, to what he said was a well-intentioned petition. He said he wanted to "sink some of the myths around changes to National Cervical Screening Program".
"The new guidelines are evidence-based, and a fabulous good news story for girls and women across Australia," Dr Gannon wrote, adding that they had been developed over years by a panel of gynaecologists, pathologists, clinicians, and scientists.
He said they reflected the changes from having a population of young adults who should nearly all be vaccinated against the HPV infection, and that there had been advancements in knowledge about cervical cancer.
"These changes will mean that millions of women can perfectly safely reduce the number of times they face the nuisance, expense, and discomfort of having pap smears," he wrote. "Perhaps the only down side of the change is the health promotion opportunities that have accrued from women visiting their GP on a two-yearly basis.
"Most importantly, at a population level it will reduce the incidence of cervical Incompetence and pre-term birth."
Dr Gannon also wrote to Ms Rossi and the petition supporters directly, saying he was confident the changes would not put women at greater risk of cervical cancer. He said the new test could detect HPV, which was the cause of most cervical cancers, whereas the pap smears detected abnormal cell changes.
"I want to be clear that any woman, regardless of age, presenting to a doctor for a pap smear will never be turned away, and that it is always essential for women under 25 years of age experiencing abnormal bleeding to present to a doctor," Dr Gannon wrote.
Ms Rossi welcomed the response but said that the public needed more information about the benefits.