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11 Abnormal Pap Smear Causes You Should Know – HPV Negative?

October 8th, 2019 6:42 am

Many diseases that women suffer from could have been properly managed if they were detected and diagnosed early with health screening tests that are recommended to undergo regularly.

These medical checks are meant to detect traces or symptoms of serious health issues such as cancer or HPV infections, with a Pap Smear test is one of such screening procedures.

A Pap smear, also known as the Papanicolaou test, is a quick and relatively painless test carried out to screen for cancer or precancer symptoms in the cervix. Women are compelled to undergo regular Pap smear tests when they visit the gynecologist.

The process of carrying out a Pap smear test involves getting some of the cells in the patients cervix, and examining them under a microscope to see if there are any abnormal cells in the sample. The discovery of abnormal cells is an indication that the patient might be prone to suffering from cervical cancer or precancerous indication of cervical dysplasia.

The recommended next steps after a Pap smear test will depend on the kind of abnormality and other relevant results discovered in the cells diagnosis:

When Pap screening test results show abnormal, it is understandable that your first immediate reaction is shocked and alarmed, as abnormal Pap smears results may indicate there is abnormal cells or infection known as dysplasia.

According to Australia Cancer Council, around 1 in 10 Pap smears show abnormal results, with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common cause of abnormal Pap smears.

Further evaluation would be required to determine if the HPV strains discovered are high-risk HPV type that have the tendency to cause cancer, or its low-risk HPV types that can cause warts.There are over 100 different types of HPV, with the high-risk HPV16 and HPV18 strains cause 70% of cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions.

The distortion of normal cells features in the cervix can occur when high-risk HPV strains find their way into the cervix to work against the skin cells and make them abnormal. This is a medical condition called cervical dysplasia.

The low-risk HPV virus that causes genital warts can cause abnormal results on a Pap smear, says MedlinePlus. If you have these symptoms, you may need a colposcopy or more frequent Pap smears.

Having abnormal Pap smear does not mean you have cancer.

While the common cause of abnormal Pap smear test results is the presence of HPV, this is not an indication that the patient is definitely infected by HPV and has cervical cancer, because there are also patients who have HPV-negative abnormal pap smear test results without any HPV detected.

Dr. Duncan Burkholder discusses abnormal pap smear and HPV in brief video below.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, WebMD, Queensland Government, Medscape, and SteadyHealth

Besides HPV, the other abnormal Pap smear causes include vaginal infections as well as some common sexually transmitted diseases (STD) that can cause cervix inflammation and lead to abnormal Pap test results:

>> You Can Test Trichomoniasis, Chlamydia and Gonorrhea at Home with OTC Test Kit

As revealed by OncoLink, when the results of a Pap smear tests indicate the presence of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS):

HPV test is reported as either HPV positive or HPV negative:

By conducting the tests above, the physicians will have more convincing evidence to back up the Pap smear tests. They would also know if the patient is being affected by other gynecological issues.

The standard process before the commencement of treatment is to carry out a Colposcopy, a typical biopsy with comprehensive study of tissue samples from the patients cervix with a microscope.

The results of the Colposcopy will determine the treatment process that should be started. At this stage, the level of abnormality of the cells would have been ascertained.

Treatment processes aim at eliminating the abnormal cells:

In video below, Dr. Stephen Buckley and Dr. discussed abnormal Pap smear treatment and steps to take following an abnormal Pap smear results depend on severity of cell changes.

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11 Abnormal Pap Smear Causes You Should Know - HPV Negative?

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