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HPVDNA Test
What are your thoughts on the Digene HPV hc2 test for women? I read about this test on the Qiagen website. The website states that the test is Detection of 13 high-risk HPV and 5 low-risk HPV types.
How reliable is this test? If no strains of the virus are detected, is it safe to assume a women does not have HPV?
Is it costly?
Where is it administered?
Thank you for your input.
How reliable is this test? If no strains of the virus are detected, is it safe to assume a women does not have HPV?
Is it costly?
Where is it administered?
Thank you for your input.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
The Digene HPV test is intended for use as part of a pap smear. A negative test only means HPV DNA was not detected in the cervix at the moment the test was done. It doesn't pick up HPV infections of the labia, vagina, vulva, or anus. Even at the cervix, it misses some infections. Further, there are 30+ HPV types that infect the genitals and are sexually transmitted; as you state yourself, the Digene test is designed to detect about half of them. However, it does detect most of the strains that matter -- the ones most associated with cervical cancer and genital warts.
For all those reasons, it definitely is not "safe to assume" that a negative test proves a woman doesn't have HPV. A negative result indicates that the risk of cancer or precancerous abnormalities of the cervix is lower than it would be with a positive test. In other words, the test is designed and should be used only to assist a pap smear in cancer prevention, but not for the specific purpose of either diagnosing HPV or excluding HPV infection.
Rather than worrying about whether or not the Digene test has been done as part of a pap smear -- and rather than "asking about" the test when women see their health care providers, as the ads urge women to do -- a more useful HPV prevention strategy for young women is to have the anti-HPV vaccine, Gardasil. The vaccine effectively prevents 70% of the HPV infections that can lead to cancer and pre-cancerous pap smear abnormalities, and 90% of infections that cause genital warts.
This is just one STD expert's opinion, and STD specialists in general are less involved in these issues than some cancer prevention specialists or gynecologists. Such persons might have different opinions and advice about the Digene test.
I hope this helps. Best wishes-- HHH, MD
For all those reasons, it definitely is not "safe to assume" that a negative test proves a woman doesn't have HPV. A negative result indicates that the risk of cancer or precancerous abnormalities of the cervix is lower than it would be with a positive test. In other words, the test is designed and should be used only to assist a pap smear in cancer prevention, but not for the specific purpose of either diagnosing HPV or excluding HPV infection.
Rather than worrying about whether or not the Digene test has been done as part of a pap smear -- and rather than "asking about" the test when women see their health care providers, as the ads urge women to do -- a more useful HPV prevention strategy for young women is to have the anti-HPV vaccine, Gardasil. The vaccine effectively prevents 70% of the HPV infections that can lead to cancer and pre-cancerous pap smear abnormalities, and 90% of infections that cause genital warts.
This is just one STD expert's opinion, and STD specialists in general are less involved in these issues than some cancer prevention specialists or gynecologists. Such persons might have different opinions and advice about the Digene test.
I hope this helps. Best wishes-- HHH, MD
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Your follow-up question should have been here, not in a new thread. Only a limited number of quesitons can be accommodated and superfluous ones block other questions. I deleted your new thread.
I already explained that the Digene test cannot determine that you have "a clean slate for HPV". No such test exists. Anyway, the large majority of HPV infections go away on their own, so even if you had one or more of the vaccine-covered types before you received Gardasil, you can assume it is long gone and that you can't get it again.
I already explained that the Digene test cannot determine that you have "a clean slate for HPV". No such test exists. Anyway, the large majority of HPV infections go away on their own, so even if you had one or more of the vaccine-covered types before you received Gardasil, you can assume it is long gone and that you can't get it again.
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
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