cervical cancer

[btchance]

A question for BTChance: Should all of us chickies get tested for HPV?

Grog did a good job of answering alot of the questions that came up, so thanks! I'll just reiterate a few things (and hopefully not confuse everybody).

The annual exam with a Pap smear determines whether or not you need to be tested for HPV or go directly to treatment for abnormal cells, and then does the test if needed, with the results of the Pap and HPV together guiding any treatment needed.

Basically - you can't treat the actual virus, you can only treat the problems the virus causes, like cancer and atypical cells leading up to cancer.

This is a little more info on Pap smears - you may be interested in this, or it may confuse you any more. It basically tells you when HPV testing is done, and when it's not, and the reasons for it.
- If the Pap is normal, no HPV testing is done - even if the virus is there, it doesn't matter b/c you can't get rid of the virus; you only treat if it causes a problem.
- ASCUS - atypical cells and they don't know what they mean - in this situation they do the test for HPV and the result determines the treatment; if positive, you get another exam looking for areas that need to be biopsied; if negative, you get another Pap smear at follow-up
- any other results (low grade, high grade abnormal cells) - almost all of these Pap smears are going to be HPV positive - they just go ahead and treat the cells and don't bother looking for the virus; whether or not it's there doesn't matter; you're treating the cells, not the virus.