Anonymous Post: Abnormal Pap Smear

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

Hey there, fellow Superstars! As you probably know, from time to time the VP Team makes posts on behalf of people who wish to remain anonymous or who do not have LJ accounts. This is one such post, and the person seems really anxious and in need of particularly special attention. Thanks in advance for your super awesome comments. :)

P.S. For more info on anonymous posts, see this link.

Jen
For the VP Team
contact_vp

"I'm a 24-year-old, sexually active woman. After a routine pap smear, I got a letter from my doctor saying that it showed "low grade abnormal cells" and encouraged me to set up an appointment with the OB-GYN as soon as possible.

I am freaking. out. There's no more information on the letter relating to the pap smear, and the student health center is closed for the weekend, so I can't get any more information that way. In addition to this being a pretty nerve-wracking situation, I also have an anxiety disorder on top of things, so I'm sitting here with my heart racing, crying, sure that I am going to faint or vomit or something. I guess I'm just looking for words of advice or comfort or wisdom or experience or something."

Comments

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

Thanks for trusting VP with your concern! Low-grade abnormal cells is a super common pap smear result, and is generally absolutely nothing to worry about. The main cause of abnormal paps is a SUPER common virus, HPV. HPV causes abnormal cells, like the kind detected on your pap, and can sometimes cause higher grade anomalies, but those too are closely monitored and fairly easily treated, if need be.

The ob/gyn may want to take a close look at the cells to ensure that s/he's not missing anything, and will help you in making a plan for follow-up paps (maybe every 6 months or thereabouts).

http://www.ashastd.org/hpv/hpv_learn_dysplasia.cfm is a good site for more information, as well as http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp161.cfm

Hope this is helpful and reassuring!

[archangelbeth]

Take a breath! It's almost certainly okay. And even if it's slightly not-okay, it's still very, very fixable.

First-off, depending on if you'd had penetration 24 to 48 hours prior to the pap smear, you might simply have scuffed up your cervical cells enough to cause an abnormal result.

Second-off, even if they are genuinely abnormal cells, probably caused by HPV (which I call the cold/flu virus of the sexually active areas), the chances are very high that the immune system will kick the viruses collective viral butts and the abnormal cells will go away.

Third-off, even if the cells don't turn back to normal in 6 months or so, and even get worse? There are procedures to scrape or freeze or otherwise remove the abnormal cells before they can start really hanging with a bad crowd, tattooing the lyrics to "Sixteen Tons" backwards on their foreheads.

Basically, yes, HPV can cause cervical cells to become abnormal, and progress to cancer. However, this generally takes years. Multiple years. Plural years. Caught early like this? Just keep up to date with your pap smears.

(This is why HPV is like the cold or flu. Left untreated, the flu can sometimes turn into pneumonia. And pneumonia, untreated, can be fatal for some! With medical attention? It's the flu, and the vast majority of people recover just fine.)

What the appointment is for, almost certainly, is to set up a 6-months followup appointment, precisely to keep an eye on these abnormal cells and make sure they are either going away, or at least not getting any more abnormal. You can probably expect to have a pap every 6 months to monitor these, if you're in the US (which it sounds like), till the cells go away -- or, possibly, have to be removed.

So take a deep breath and think calmer thoughts, yes? You'll be fine. *offers a reassuring hug*

[kat1031.livejournal.com]

I was diagnosed with cervical dysplasia (pre-cancerous cells on my cervix) at 17 and was treated with cryosurgery to destroy the diseased tissue. I'm now almost 36 and despite fairly regular paps, I've never had any other abnormalities.

This is why we do paps regularly - there's some ick, they caught it, they'll fix it and very, very likely, that will be the end of it.

I'm not saying don't be nervous - nervous is really really normal when a doctor tells you something's not right. But also realize that you're really unlikely to die or have any long-lasting impact. It takes years for cervical cancer to develop to the point where it's super dangerous and if the cells are "low-grade" abnormal, you're probably nowhere near that.

Do definitely make an appointment with an OB/GYN ASAP and get more info on what that diagnosis means for you and what treatment plan they suggest. If it's cryosurgery, it's not the best time I've ever had with my vagina, but it was also far from the worst (methotrexate therapy wins that "prize" by a long shot) and I'll be more than happy to tell you what I remember of that experience if it helps.

[altorogue.livejournal.com]

I'm going to chime in and say that this is not the harbinger of certain doom. Yes, it's something to follow up on, but it's not something to lose sleep over. I had some abnormal cells a few years ago, but that was it. It's super common, and they just kept a close eye on me to make sure it wasn't a trend.

And really, if you think about it, a few abnormal cells IS pretty close to normal. Sometimes cells just spontaneously mutate a bit with no real reason- just like there's no real reason that my dog has one white paw and three black ones or I have a birthmark on my abdomen. Not every abnormal cell is cancerous, or something- sometimes they're just a little off and don't quite match the rest of them and that's it.

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

If you're under 25ish, then often the fact that your internal anatomy is still finishing it's maturation can make a test result apparently abnormal. It's the reason why some countries won't do cervical smears in under-25s.

[lindsapotamus.livejournal.com]

This exact thing just happened to me last week. I am freshly returned from the colposcopy and it went very well. The low-grade abnormal cells they found are due to a form of HPV that I knew I had, but they weren't precancerous. The Dr. thought my cervix looked clear enough to not even proceed past the vinegar swipe and looking. I was expecting my cervical canal to get scraped, but he said everything looked fine.

So, I was crying and thought I had cervical cancer and was about to die, but it turns out my cells are justing being abnormal due to the virus. I'm glad that I just started my gardisil shots so that I won't have to worry as much about the scarier versions of HPV out there.

Good luck, the best advice I can give you is don't hardcore worry until you find out you actually have something to worry about. But do get it checked out.