I recently had a pap smear done and they called me back and said that it was abnormal.....and to come back in 6 months to have another pap done.

Is that a long time to wait??? Im worried. If it is cancer...isnt that too long to wait????

It is very common to have an abnormal pap smear. That just means that questionable cells are present. When you go back in 6 months it will give the cells enough time to either grow slightly, lessen or disappear altogether (which is often the case). The time frame is necessary!

I recently had a pap smear done and they called me back and said that it was abnormal.....and to come back in 6 months to have another pap done.

Is that a long time to wait??? Im worried. If it is cancer...isnt that too long to wait????

What level of abnormality was it? ASCUS? SIL? For ASCUS, they should probably have called you back for an HPV DNA test. In the case of ASCUS and HPV neg., they usually re-schedule a Pap in 6-12 months. If, on the other hand, you have ASCUS and test positive for HPV, then it is normal to do a colpo right away.

If your Pap is SIL (LSIL/HSIL), again, the next step usually is immediate colposcopy.

Hope this helps.

Cervical cancer usually takes a long time to develop . If your doctor was concerned about your results being cancer, they would have not had you wait 6 months for a followup. Please relax and continue to get regular paps. I bet you'll be back to normal in 6 months! :)

Take care!

Donna

There are many factors that cause abnormal pap test like the previous posts if your doctor was very worried over the situation it would have been sooner usually 6 months is the waiting period to see if anything new develops or anything already present gets worse my advice is to relax in the mean time and try to stay healthy good luck :bouncing:

In 6 out of 10 people, Cin I from a pap will come back normal in 6 months. That's why they don't like to rush into treatment.

I feel exactly the same as you. My smear came back as normal but with inflammation on some of my cells and I have to go back in 6 months time. It just seems such a long time to wait, especially when you hear stories about cervical cancer progressing really quickly, even though in general it takes a while. I always feel like I'll be one of the unlucky ones.

I know its probably necessary to wait 6 months but it is really tough going.

The whole health thing tends to end up as a waiting game. They discovered cin 3 from my pap which my first doctor called carcinoma (I assume he meant carcinoma in situ- the last stage before turning into cancer). The pap was done Jan 3, and my surgery is May 17th. So think of it this way, this is considered to be the most serious case of precancer, and still they are not rushing me in. It sucks, but these conditions are so treatable when caught early, and typically do tend to take some time to progress. Though there are exceptions to every rule, and I do believe that everyone should go with their instincts, so if you are nervous, see if you can get something earlier, or at least a good explanation for your doc as to why it can't be any sooner, and maybe some things you can do in the meantime to help your condition (diet, etc), so at least you can feel proactive during the waiting period. Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

I recently had a pap smear done and they called me back and said that it was abnormal.....and to come back in 6 months to have another pap done.

Is that a long time to wait??? Im worried. If it is cancer...isnt that too long to wait????



My advice...don't wait the 6 months....ask for the HPV DNA test and the ThinPrep Pap....you'll know right away what's going on...the results of those 2 tests combined is 95%...why wait and wonder for 6 months what's really going on!