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No pap smears in 7 years
I haven't had a pap smear in over 7 years and im worried about having cervical cancer. What are the chances of me having stage 4 cervical cancer?
The risk of cervical cancer depends mostly on your risk for HPV. Even if you have gotten HPV since your last pap smear, most HPV infections clear on their own within a couple of years, and don't go on to cervical cancer, and cervical cancers are slow growing.
I'm glad you're getting it done, and even an abnormal result probably won't mean you have stage 4 cancer, or cancer, for that matter. Good luck!
I'm glad you're getting it done, and even an abnormal result probably won't mean you have stage 4 cancer, or cancer, for that matter. Good luck!
2 Comments
Thank you ,that helps alot. I was very promiscuous in my early 20s and out of fear i never got a test for hpv so i think i I might have been exposed so that's why I'm really worried now that I'm 30. Im trying to turn my life around and this is a step
Every now and then, someone writes in who is worried she is pregnant but is afraid to test and find out. I always wonder why, since you don't get pregnant from a test, and pregnancy doesn't go away by itself if it is ignored. But even worse, it kind of high-centers the woman on a little mountain of fears. She can't get off the mountain because she won't test, so she sits there and stresses over what might be a totally baseless fear.
Same reaction here. You're dismayed over what you characterize as a promiscuous past, and that leads you to worry you might have had exposure to HPV. This puts you on the little mountain of worry about it with no path out until you test. If you had it and it went away, or if you never had it, all this worry is for nothing. If you do learn you have it, then you do what the doctor says. I think getting tested sounds like a good path.
Good luck!
Same reaction here. You're dismayed over what you characterize as a promiscuous past, and that leads you to worry you might have had exposure to HPV. This puts you on the little mountain of worry about it with no path out until you test. If you had it and it went away, or if you never had it, all this worry is for nothing. If you do learn you have it, then you do what the doctor says. I think getting tested sounds like a good path.
Good luck!
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Some time after I had my second child, I got really bad about doctors. He's now 15. cough cough. I went as long as you between pap smears (maybe longer but I admit nothing . . .) and just had one this past December. I had all the same concerns you did. I don't know your age but I was told that things have changed. I got a cervical scraping which I will only have now every 3 years but a general pap smear still every year. I had not a single bad cell. They also checked for the dangerous kind of HPV that leads to cancer. Didn't have that either. Cervical cancer is not that common and very slow growing. Try not to worry. The odds are in your favor that all is fine. And any cancer that progresses to stage 4 almost always has symptoms. Do you have any?
1 Comments
Im 30:) nope except i have a odd pea size lymph node sticking out in my inner thighs
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