Human papillomavirus (HPV)-based screening needs triage of HPV+ women. To date reflex cytology is applied.
Usually HPV test is repeated in HPV+/cytology-normal women.
In routine implementation, in 10 programmes, 20–57% of HPV-positive women were judged to have abnormal cytology.
This large variability affects only marginally the overall colposcopy referral.
The sensitivity of reflex cytology only marginally affects overall sensitivity.