Hi,
I thought this would be the best place to ask beings as Google has directed me here.
Had a smear that came back stating -
"High-grade dyskaryosis ?invasive squamous cell carcinoma.
Unusual presentation as numerous fibre & tadpole type cells and scanty high grade epithelial cells in a background of inflammation and blood.
High risk HPV detected"
I only know this as my husband took photos of the paper notes.
I went for my colposcopy today not actually knowing what my smear results were apart from abnormal. The consultant was very blunt and said the smear wasn't good and that they would be doing treatment today with my consent. He said it looked like cancer but obviously they needed to look at things. From googling I can see that it is most definitely cancer.
I agreed to it and they said they would give me a local injection and get on. This was all before he even looked at anything.
I had taken painkillers before but on inserting the speculum I was in agony. He seemed to get annoyed and removed it and said that if I can't cope with it he wouldn't be able to do anything! The nurse basically said the same thing. Said I need to relax - hard when you have just been told it is probable you have cancer!
I asked him to use a smaller speculum which was manageable. I basically lay there with my eyes closed blanking out the whole thing. At some point he said they weren't going to do any treatment as he managed to scrape some cells off. Presuming this was a biopsy.
I asked what was the reasoning behind not doing the treatment and he just said that he managed to get some cells without it. Confused as I thought the treatment was to get rid of all the cells? I am presuming the worse if he could get the cells without treatment.
I asked him about an ectropion I had had for years and he just said it wasn't important - relevance as I was told it was very large and covering a lot of my cervix. I was spotting after having my baby 4 months ago which is why I had the smear test (was also overdue due to pregnancy) although the bleeding has stopped since being on the mini pill.
I was hoping to have a better understanding of everything but the whole thing was so rushed and nothing was really explained. Obviously now I just feel like my world is coming down around me and it's cancer that has probably been there for years. I suffer from health anxiety as it is and it's like I now have a reason to be going straight to the worst case.
Did anyone else have anything similar? What was the wait like for results and next appointments? Were you offered any support for it all? I didn't realise they could tell it was cancer from a smear test so obviously I wasn't prepared to be told it was in the meeting. The consultant was very blunt and didn't offer any information moving forward.
I am really struggling mentally. I have a 4 month old and 2 school age children. Googling is making me spiral but I just can't stop 
Hi Johyl and welcome to our group.
I’m really sorry to read you’ve had a bad experience and that the doctor was so unhelpful-not what anyone needs to go through.
It seems from your smear results that it wasn’t certain whether you had abnormal cells (which are precancerous) or not, hence the question mark before “squamous cell carcinoma” which would be a type of cervical cancer.
I’m presuming you went for a LLETZ treatment to attempt to remove the cells? Sometimes it’s not possible to remove all the cells if they are covering a large area, but the samples the doctor has taken will go to the lab now to be analysed.
I appreciate you’ve said you have health anxiety, which will make things extra difficult for you, but I’d encourage you to try to stay away from google-It cannot diagnose you, and will only make you more anxious. You may read distressing stories there, but it’s not going to be your story. Please don’t assume this is a cancer that you’ve had for years. A smear test is not a test for cervical cancer-it’s a screening for the hpv virus.
You’ve said you have hpv but so do many ladies, and it doesn’t always mean cancer. Hpv is the most likely cause of abnormal cells, but the only way to know if it’s cancer is from a biopsy, and you’ll need to wait for answers from the lab when the analysis has been done.
You have asked if anyone has anything similar and we can all just tell of our own experiences. I had a colposcopy and had some punch biopsies done-small samples of tissue were taken. These were sent for analysis, and I was given an appointment a week later for results. However, I had a visible lesion on my cervix which was quite large, so my situation wasn’t the same as yours.
Have you been told when you can expect your results? I’d expect that you’d have a further appointment to discuss them to confirm what has been found, and what the plan would be going forward.
Sarah xx
Absolutely you should have expected and received more compassion. Unfortunately, there are doctors who may be very efficient but unfortunately have no bedside manner.
An experienced gynaecologist will probably be able to spot cells which are cancerous, but ultimately they don’t know for sure and only your lab results will give the answer. My own gynaecologist could see my tumour but still didn’t frighten me by saying it was cancer. He just said he had seen something and tests would be needed to check the biopsies he took. That was much kinder, and meant I didn’t have the level of worry you’ve been put through.
Results may go on your nhs app-I didn’t have the app at the time of my testing. If you do see results appear on there, it may not help with your anxiety to read them if you don’t necessarily understand them, and haven’t had anything explained, so it would be better to wait for an appointment to have them explained face to face.
I now have the app, but I don’t read anything new immediately. I wait for an appointment. I have anxiety myself, so I deliberately work hard at not increasing it, though I understand how difficult it is.
It’s likely you would have another appointment since your treatment wasn’t able to be completed and the cells have not all been removed yet. The treatment would depend on what has been found, and how extensive it is, so I think you’ll need to sit tight and wait to hear more.
I hope you’ll have a kinder experience at future appointments as you certainly deserve that.
Sarah xx
