Cervical Cancer Screening at Home: A New Option for Texans
In Texas, Pap smears can now be done at home. The Teal Wand, an alternative for cervical cancer screening, recently became available to women across the state. The self-collection device from San Francisco–based startup Teal Health received federal approval in May and was introduced commercially in California in August and later in several other states.
Teal Health began developing its wand more than five years ago to make screening easier to access and to allow women to avoid the discomfort of a pelvic exam, said Dr. Liz Swenson, Teal Health’s medical director and an obstetrician-gynecologist based in California. The device tests for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes more than nine out of 10 cases of cervical cancer.
Each year in the United States, about 13,000 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer and roughly 4,000 die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For women in Texas, the incidence rate for cervical cancer is about 24% above that of women in the rest of the U.S., according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Teal Health’s Teal Wand self-collection device for at-home cervical cancer screening is now available to people in Texas.
Teal Health
Cervical Cancer in Texas
Among counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Hood County has the highest cervical cancer rate, with 13 new cases per 100,000 women from data collected between 2017 to 2021, according to Healthy North Texas, an initiative of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation.
“Sadly, we’ve been at the same number of cervical cancers in the United States every year for decades,” said Dr. Claudia Werner, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern Medical Center who specializes in cervical cancer prevention. “We’re having trouble putting a dent in that number. Self-HPV collection is a huge plus, a huge step forward for increasing access to cervical cancer screening.”
What is HPV?
HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that tends to infect cells of the cervix and the vaginal wall. A Pap smear, which collects cells from the cervix, became the standard way of testing for HPV around the early to mid-2000s.
“This is a very common infection and nearly everyone who has even had sex once will have a positive HPV test if tested regularly in their life,” Werner said.
There are around 14 types of HPV considered high risk for cervical cancer and two of these — HPV 16 and 18 — cause about 70% of all cervical cancers. The Teal Wand, which looks and works like a tampon with a soft sponge inside, tests for those 14 types, Swenson said.
The Teal Wand
The Teal Wand is approved for people aged 25 to 65 who are at average risk for cervical cancer. (Testing for HPV to screen for cervical cancer does not begin until age 25, Werner said.) Potential customers meet virtually with a Teal Health provider to see if their medical history makes them good candidates for the at-home kit and are given a prescription if they are.
Including telehealth consults, the kit costs $99 with select insurances; it’s otherwise $249 out-of-pocket. It is eligible for Health Savings and Flexible Spending accounts.
The Teal Wand contains a soft sponge to swab cells from the cervix or vaginal wall.
Teal Health
After purchasing the kit from the Teal Health website, users use the wand to swab inside the vagina — or the cervix, if they are able to reach it — to collect a tissue sample that they then mail to the company. This sample is then sent to a lab for HPV testing.
If the test comes back positive for the HPV types associated with cervical cancer, the person will have a telehealth visit with a Teal Health provider to discuss their results and next steps. That conversation also includes finding an in-person provider if the patient doesn’t have one.
More Accessibility, but with Some Concerns
Swenson and Werner said studies on HPV screening have found comparable results when people self-collect or are swabbed at the doctor’s office.
