Question about, well, female issue!

[NanceXToo]

Two years ago, I went for my annual exam/PAP and they told me that the PAP came back "slightly irregular."

 

Basically, they just said "come back in a year."

 

So, I went back a year later, and they told me the results were the same. Still "slightly irregular."

 

Once again, they told me "come back in a year."

 

Next month I go again. I'm getting a little nervous about it for some reason. Is this normal, do you think? Anyone else experience anything like that? Is it something that is likely to worsen? What if they tell me it's still "slightly irregular, come back in a year"...?

[Rebecca VA]

Did they say anything about precancerous cells? Because those are fairly common. I've been getting the precancerous cell message for the past 30 years and am still perfectly healthy.

[NanceXToo]

Nope, they didn't say anything more specific than "slightly irregular!"

[tmulcahy]

The only time I my reslults were irregular I had to have a biopsy. Everything was fine. The next year the results were normal. I would ask your Gyn why she/he is not considering a biopsy at this point. There may be a very logical explaination but I would want to hear it. If you have asked your provider and no explaination has been given I would get a second opinion.

 

Best wishes to you.

[Carrie12345]

My (overdue) pap just came back abnormal. I have a history of mixed results. When this one came back ASCUS (Atypical Squamous Cells of Unknown Significance), they ran an HPV test (on the same sample), and it came back high-risk positive. The next step is for my ob/gyn to do a colposcopy to examine the cervix and see if there's anything that should be biopsied.

 

Since you've had two "abnormals" in a row, I'd ask them to do the HPV test if this third one is abnormal. If it's negative, it's probably no big deal. 99.7% of cervical cancer stems from HPV, so a negative would almost eliminate any question. If it's positive, it's still probably no big deal, but I would expect (and ask for) a colposcopy to get a better idea of what's going on.

 

:grouphug:

[Mergath]

I've had both abnormal and precancerous cells show up during paps and colposcopies. Scared the crap out of me. I got the precancerous result when I was pregnant with my daughter. They told me to come back six weeks after I gave birth to have them removed from my cervix. Well, life got in the way, and I finally went back in a couple of weeks ago, more than two years late. They did a pap, and it came back perfectly normal.

 

From what I've been told, a lot of these things just go away on their own. It's not something you want to ignore- I'm not recommending you follow my example- but it's not something to stress over, either. Just continue with regular checkups to keep an eye on things, have a colposcopy if your doc recommends one, and you'll be fine.