Should I be worried or mad?

I am 23 and pregnant with my third child. I had a pap smear done Feb, 2007 (Normal), Mid to end of Nov, 2007 (Normal) and then because a new doc wanted to "start fresh" I had another one done Dec, 2007 which came back abnormal! Now the Women's health clinic that I've been going to that " wanted to start fresh" has been screwing around with me since day one. They mess my due date up and did an ultra sound and saw nothing and wanted to do an emergency D&C on me. Turns out they just did the ultrasound too early. I have heard that they haver been doing alot of unusual testing in that clinic as well. Oh by the way if it makes any difference it is a Military hospital. The question is, should I be mad that they have once again cause me a lot of stress in my already stressful life, with this abnormal pap? Or should I be worried? What are the chance of having 2 normal paps, one being normal 2 1/2 weeks before the abnormal one and then having a abnormal one?

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

Hi There,

There are many kinds of "abnormal" You should ask what abnormal means in this particular situation. It could mean inflammation or changes related to a common virus called human papillomavirus (HPV). The only abnormal pap reading that we worry about are ones that say the words "cancer" or precancer "low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion LSIL" or high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion HSIL"
(squamous is the medical word for skin)


It is very common to have mild changes seen on pap smear in pregnancy. So ask for more information and get a copy of the reports for yourself.
good luck with everything!