January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and late-stage cervical cancer appears to be on the rise, according to research.

This could be due in part to the pandemic and the change in guidelines for pap smears, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Early stages of cervical cancer don’t usually involve symptoms and can be hard to detect. That makes routine pap smears extremely important.

The test can help identify any abnormal cells. Women now only need to get them done every three years, and in some cases, every five years.

Cervical cancer is preventable and is often the result of the HPV virus, a sexually transmitted infection. So testing for that is equally as important.

Roughly 13,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed every year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sadly, around 4,000 people die.