Hi
I had my smear in Oct and the results only came back in Feb that there's evidence of HPV and abnormal cells. I'm awaiting a colscopony. I've had problems for over 20 years where I'd have flare-ups lesions down below in absolute agony. More recently have noticed pigmented spots, bleeding after sex, bad smell and recurrent Utis. I've had several gum checks all clear. 7 years ago they took a biopsy and said it was acne but I always thought it was something more sinister. I'm worried that HPV hasn't been detected all those years back and now it's cancerous. What symptoms has everyone else?
Hi Sammyb and welcome to our group.
The first check now in cervical screening is a check for the hpv virus, and if this is detected, then your cervical cells are checked for any abnormalities which has happened in your case. This is different from how screening was done in the past so it may be that when you last had a screening test there wasn’t this check for hpv done first and if your cells looked normal there wasn’t no check for the virus.
However, the good thing now is that you’ve had a screening and can now get further checks done with a colposcopy. Hpv in itself doesn’t produce any symptoms, but you have some symptoms which do need to be investigated. I personally had a cancer diagnosis, but didn't have the symptoms you are reporting here, but we are all different so you may hear from other ladies who have similar symptoms to those you’ve described.
However, in a cervical cancer group, most ladies who post here do so because they’ve already had a cancer diagnosis so you’d need to take that into account if you get replies from others. Often ladies who have further investigations after screening don’t post again to let us know how they’ve got on, or they maybe have a treatment for abnormal cells and then successfully move on from the group.
The colposcopy will take a detailed look at your cervix and you may have small biopsies taken which will look at the cells in the lab to establish the level of abnormality. This will decide what treatment, if any is required. You say that you had a biopsy taken 7 years ago-was this from your cervix? Cervical cells remain in the cervix, and don’t travel round the body so I was puzzled by you saying the diagnosis was acne.
Hopefully you’ll get your colposcopy done soon and the results will show what’s going on, but you can’t really second guess what those results may be. You’ve said you’ve had issues for a long time, so hopefully these can now be identified and treated and you won’t get a cancer diagnosis, but please let us know how you get on.
Sarah xx
Hi Sammyb
I hope everything goes smoothly with your appointment today. I know it’s hard not to worry and imagine all sorts, but I hope things can move forward with some answers for you.
Sarah xx
