The harms associated with screening for ovarian cancer outweigh its documented benefits, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced today in its first recommendation on the subject since 2012.

The USPSTF published guidelines six years ago detailing the dangers of screening for ovarian cancer—the fifth most common cause of cancer death in American women—in women who aren’t at risk for the disease. The group mirrored similar sentiments in a Feb. 13 statement published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“The USPSTF agrees that screening tests are needed that can accurately detect ovarian cancer earlier to prevent deaths,” the authors, led by David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, wrote. “However, the evidence shows that currently available tests are not able to do so and can lead to harm by causing healthy women to undergo surgical removal of their ovaries when no cancer is present.”

And ovarian cancer screenings do produce a number of false positives, Grossman et al. wrote. The positive predictive value of the screenings is low, resulting in unnecessary, costly surgeries in disease-free women.

The USPSTF reviewed evidence presented since its last statement, including data from the large-scale U.K. Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) study, focusing on cancer mortality, quality of life, false-positive rates, surgery and surgical complication rates and psychological effects as primary outcomes. Their results were clear: the net balance of the benefit and harms of screening for ovarian cancer was negative.

The group based its “D” rating on the perceived harms of transvaginal ultrasounds and testing for the serum tumor marker cancer antigen 125. Either—or a combination of both—of these strategies does little to reduce overall ovarian cancer mortality, according to the statement. It’s also a common misconception that pelvic examinations with bimanual palpation of the ovaries is a useful screening technique, the authors wrote.

“There is consensus among major medical and public health organizations that screening for ovarian cancer in the general population is not recommended,” the statement read. “This recommendation applies to asymptomatic women who are not known to have a high-risk hereditary cancer syndrome.”

Women predisposed to the illness, like those carrying the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, are still recommended for routine screenings. In otherwise healthy patients, the procedures could cause unneeded anxiety and complications, the USPSTF said.

This recommendation follows in the footsteps of many other reputable organizations, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology and the American Academy of Family Physicians, who have also spoken out against ovarian cancer screening.