HPV

Abnormal smear and high risk HPV. Waiting for colposcopy

Letter said abnormal cells and high risk HPV detected, referred for colposcopy in three weeks. I have read the leaflet four times and I still feel like I’m waiting to be told something worse.

second_tuesday 4 months ago

NoteMember experience, not medical advice. Symptoms overlap between infections and only a test can tell them apart.

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half_light 4 months ago

What that letter describes is the screening programme doing precisely what it exists to do: finding changes early, long before they’d become a problem, so they can be looked at properly.

Colposcopy is a closer look with a magnifier. Some people have a small sample taken. It’s uncomfortable rather than painful for most, and it’s an appointment, not a verdict.

kite_and_string 3 months ago

Went through this two years ago. Abnormal cells, colposcopy, minor treatment, back on routine screening now.

Take something to listen to for the waiting room and ask them to talk you through what they’re seeing as they go if that helps. Mine did and it was much better than lying there guessing.

new_leaf 3 months ago

Timescale, because it is the thing that shrinks the fear.

Where persistent high risk HPV does eventually lead to something serious, that process typically runs over the better part of a decade. Screening exists to interrupt it years before that, and you have been picked up at the stage the programme was designed to catch.

If they do find changes that need treating, the treatment is usually a short outpatient procedure rather than anything major. Worth knowing now instead of imagining worse.

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