New self-swab HPV test is an alternative to Pap smears. Here's how it works.

A new option for cervical cancer screening gives patients a less-invasive alternative to conventional tests.

These new "self-collection tests" are scheduled to arrive in doctor's offices nationwide this month. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved self-collection as a method to detect human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer, in May. Screening tests are intended to flag people at high risk of cancer or precancer, not to diagnose the disease.

This FDA approval enables patients to collect their own clinical samples for cervical cancer screening. With the rollout of these tests, the U.S. joins Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where self-swabbing for HPV is already widely used.

For now, the samples, collected from the vaginal canal, must still be gathered in Health care settings, such as doctor's offices. Other countries have allowed at-home self-sampling for HPV, but the method is still pending FDA approval in the U.S.

Here's what you should know about the newly available self-collection tests.

How is HPV related to cervical cancer?

HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection that's primarily transferred through sexual intercourse or skin-to-skin contact. Most sexually active people will contract at least one type of HPV in their lifetime, but the infection normally resolves on its own.

Though more than 30 types of HPV can infect the genitals, only a small number — referred to as "high-risk" HPV — are associated with cancer. Low-risk HPV tends to have no symptoms and clears on its own, although sometimes, genital warts may appear. Nonetheless, this low-risk type of infection rarely leads to cancer.