Women With Cerebral Palsy Receive Less Preventive Gynecological Care

FRIDAY, Sept. 18, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Women with cerebral palsy (CP) receive substantially less preventive gynecologic care versus women without CP, according to a study published online Aug. 17 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Michael J. Gouzoulis, M.D., from the Umass Chan Medical School in Worcester, and colleagues examined whether adult women with CP receive gynecologic preventive care. The analysis included 138,277 women with CP and 553,102 matched women without CP identified from the PearlDiver national insurance database (2010 to 2022).

The researchers found a substantially lower incidence of preventive care for women with CP for all preventive screenings. Across the study period, on average, 31.8 percent of women with cerebral palsy attended at least one routine gynecologic examination every five years versus 79.8 percent of women without CP. Across all years, 23.4 percent of women with CP had at least one Pap test every five years versus 54.1 percent of women without CP. Among women aged 40 years and older, on average, 44.9 percent of women with CP had at least one mammogram every five years versus 72.3 percent of women without CP. Women with CP had significantly lower odds of undergoing Pap tests (odds ratio [OR], 0.26), mammograms (OR, 0.39), and gynecologic examinations (OR, 0.15).

“As our young patients with cerebral palsy successfully transition into adulthood, we have a responsibility to look closely at the hurdles they face in the health care system,” principal author David Frumberg, M.D., from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said in a statement. “These data show that a major vulnerable population is missing out on potentially life-saving, preventative screenings, and we have to understand why.”

One author disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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