Women will still need a cervical smear after a hysterectomy when abnormal cervical smears with CIN was the reason for the operation. When they remove the cervix you can no longer get cervical cancer, but there is still the possibility that the high-risk HPV continues to exist and causes changes to the cells of the vagina wall. When there is no cervix, they will take a swab to collect cells from the vaginal cuff also named a vaginal vault smear. After a partial or supracervical hysterectomy, the cervix is still intact and the possibility of developing cervical cancer remains. Those women need to continue having regular cervical smears. As the risk of cervical cancer increases as you grow older, screening remains important. On the other hand, if you never had any abnormal cervical smears in the past and they do a hysterectomy for a benign condition like endometriosis or prolapse, screening is not necessary anymore.