This is bcm's wife. I just got a call from the gyn saying my pap was abnormal. I expected them to say come right back in,let's do another one...something. Instead,the nurse told me to follow up next year during my annual exam and to disregard it. She then said it was safe to ignore since 90% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV and mine was negative. So I said does that mean I sit on this and cross my fingers that I'm not that 10%? And she hesitated and then said it takes 5-7 years to change to cervical cancer and we'd still catch it in time. I want to trust they know what they are talking about but what the hell....I can't imagine knowing this and ignoring it for a year. Seems irresponsible. Anyone else had this happen? And was it handled this way?
Well, no, but my abnormal was caused by HPV and I then had to go to the coloscopy clinic every three months. I was ~20 at the time and the procedures may have changed. I was diagnosed with dysplasia (abnormal cells...pre-cancerous) I went to the clinic for several years and after several normal paps I was discharged from the clinic.
I am faithful about yearly paps and have had a few abnormals due to "that" time of the month. They rescheduled me right away. This may have been because of the HPV.
To catch up - I'm 34. 35 in December. I've gone ahead and made an appointment with Polko's office and will see either her or Shonegan,waiting for a call back. Will go to Paul Mackoul for anything major. I actually called the original place that did the pap and discussed this whole thing with them,letting them know I felt it was irresponsible to sit on it (literally) for a year. And the nurse actually took a deep breath as if she were annoyed and said that is the protocol by the association of ob/gyn's and that per their regulations,it is absolutely safe and that they refused to do anything more for this issue until a year had passed.
Good for you! It might be that your insurance may not cover another pap for another year. Out of pocket is not so bad. My gyn no longer accepted my insurance and charged ~$90 for the exam/pap and lab results (Eastern Shore)
You need to get rechecked for your peace of mind even if nothing is wrong.
I had been waiting for the results of a sono and now that we have them the dr. is saying I need a hysteroscopy to evaluate for a problem with the endometrium. It seems like one thing after another!
Think positive thoughts.
My sister had a one pound tumor removed from her ovary that had teeth and hair.
The doctors called it an absorbed twin or something like that (she was 17 at the time)
She then went on to have twins herself.
Female troubles suck. Period.
to you.
But if it isn't too personal a subject,I take it to mean since you had a bad pap and it came back fine that there can be reasons other than cervical cancer for this to have happened - would you mind sharing what it wound up being? I did some searching and saw that a few factors can contribute to this after reading your post and on thing I noted was that apparently having a pap done around a period can throw things off. Mine had ended just 2 days prior to the test being done and I was also sick with mild bronchitis - don't know if that would even be relevant.
