Hi, I am starting to get scared. I was told by my gyno that I have high risk precancerous cells in my cervix & HPV. I am having the laser procedure on March 31st, and am going to be put out for the procedure. Can anyone tell me their stories regarding the laser procedure. How much it hurts, how long it takes, etc? Thanks :)

i had a laser and leep 2 weeks ago... it was nothing - i went under and it felt like 3 seconds. just some cramping (prob from the leep) for a few days after -- i did get a HUGE bill though! did yoru dr say why the laser and not the leep too? Ususally just a laser is not suggested as there isnt any piece of cervix to biopsy after, but you can do a laser cone i believe too...

Thanks for the reply. She took a biopsy after my pap came back abnormal. Should she take another one during the laser procedure? I have an appt with her next week, that's a good question to ask her. Am I correct in thinking the laser procedure is a step up from LEEP?

Its not a step up really, just a different type - the benefits of laser are :

Less scarring to the cervix (than with the leep or cone)
Can get a larger area easily w/o taking a lot of the cervix out
Very precise / advanced technology
Less invasive

But, the negatives:
Can't get up into the ECC
Can't take pieces to biopsy (for laser ablation) b/c its 'vaporized'
More expensive
Cant get into the very deep layers (so wouldnt be good alone for cin 3 most likely)

A laser ANd leep is what I had - leep on the center part and laser outside for the larger areas....they can adjust it when they'redoing it. If you havea lot of surface area of abnormality, then leep is great. But if its in the center, or parts are very advanced, you'd want to leep those areas.

Id get a copy of all your reports/labs so you know exactly what you have so you can research and decide :)

Thank you for all the info, now I have plenty of questions for my gyno :D

no problem. i have heard of some gynos suggesting against laser b/c only a gyn/onc will do it, and they dont want to lose patients (horrible!) so i would get all your info, and make the final decision yourself , if shetries to talk you out of it .....hopefully she will suggest whats best tho!