ABNORMAL PAP TEST....STD OR HPV SCARED

[Reesie222]

Ok I am very scared right now. I am 19 years old and I've had six sex partners. In the last year I've only had two sex partners. I always get checked out for STD's whenever I am sexually active. In 2005 I was diagnosed with Chlaymidia and Gonnereha. I was treated for both STD,s and they went away. I have'nt had an STD since then. I have one sex partner at the time. I have been sexually active with this particular male since I started having sex three years ago. He is the only person I've been sexually active with this year. Ok moving on I went to my GYN doctor sometime around late December. I had a pap test done and was unaware the my test was abnormal until I went to the doctor recently. My doctor gave me another pap test and she notified me of my results yesterday. She told me that my test was abnormal once again and the problem had worsened. I am supposed to have a colposcopy done next week.What is the colposcopy checking for? I dont really understand what is going on.I know I dont have an STD because I was checked for STD's a month ago and everything was negative. I am very scared because I keep thinking this could be HPV or cancer. I have'nt had any vaginal problems and everything seems normal. What could be going on with me?? Im confused and scared.

[gates85]

Hi Reesie. The colposcopy is going to examine your cervix to check for abnormal legions caused by HPV. It's likely that you have HPV, but then again, just about everyone who has been sexually active with more than 2 or 3 partners has HPV and in the vast majority of cases it is nothing to worry about. Even if you are found to have one of the cancer-causing strains of HPV, by no means does that mean you're going to get cancer. In fact, 99% of women who acquire cancer-causing strains of HPV never develop cancer. You will just need to have regular pap smear check ups so that your provider can monitor your HPV and treat any abnormal lesions that may occur. If you have regular pap smears, that will be abot 100% protective against you ever getting cervical cancer.

[gracefromHHP]

Regular pap tests only check for abnormal cervical cells. They don't test for hpv unless you had a thin prep pap test done ( which usually isn't routinely used ).

1 irregular pap test can be due to many things. 2 in a row means it's time to work harder to find out what is going on hence why they want to do a colposcopy.

A colposcopy is when they use special tubing that goes inside your vagina to get a good look at your cervix ( it magnifies it and lights up the area so that they can see it better ).  They will examine your cervix under the lights and if they see anything - they will biopsy it.  They will also most likely instill an acidic solution over your cervix and see if any areas turn white and they will biopsy them too.  

You should also specifically request a hpv dna test during the procedure to check for hpv.  If it finds hpv - it will tell you if it's low risk or high risk which is important to know.

Also while you are there - chances are good that you were never tested for herpes either - ask if you were and if you weren't - get a type specific herpes igg blood test too to cover all your std bases.

Best of luck during your procedure!!  I know it's scarey to think that something is going on in your genital area but this way you find out what is going on quickly and the sooner you treat problems in the genital area the better.

grace