I had my colposcopy yesterday - new questions - Sexually Transmitted Diseases Message Board

cambria · 08-17-2005, 10:20 AM

Before the procedure, I asked the doctor what my pap results had come back classified as, and she said they were high grade. (That obviously scared me). Then she went ahead with the colposcopy and really, it wasn't bad. The most uncomfortable part of it was just having the speculum in there. She did find one little abnormal area that she biopsied, and I didn't feel that at all. What I'm wondering now, is since she only found one little abnormal area, could that mean that it's really not as severe as the pap made it out to be? She said herself that paps aren't always really accurate at diagnosing the severity of the abnormality, but she said it can go either way - the biopsy results can show that it's not AS severe as the pap said, or it can sometimes turn out to be MORE severe.

Also, how exactly do they determine the severity? Is it by the amount of abnormal cells found in the tissue? Or is it more just if the cells are pre-cancerous, it's considered severe, and if they're just abnormal without being pre-cancerous, they're not? As I asked before, does it also have anything to do with the amount of abnormal cells the doctor saw during the colpo?

One last question - the doctor said that I'd be requiring treatment regardless of what the results came back as. She said that the results would determine what TYPE of treatment I'd need, and whether I had a choice as to what I do or not. She said I'd either have to have the cells frozen or a LEEP. So how severe does the abnormality have to be in order for a LEEP to be necessary? I'm sure that if the biopsy confirms high grade, I'll have to have that... but I'm hoping it'll show otherwise. I just don't see how I could have had a normal pap in October and then just 6 months later, suddenly have a "high grade abnormal" pap. Someone mentioned in my first post that when you're pregnant, abnormal cells grow more quickly, but can they grow THAT quickly????

iluveeyore · 08-17-2005, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cambria

She did find one little abnormal area that she biopsied, and I didn't feel that at all. What I'm wondering now, is since she only found one little abnormal area, could that mean that it's really not as severe as the pap made it out to be? ?

When she did your pap, did she test for various STD's, that REALLY sounds like HPV, to go from normal pap to high end abnormality in 6 months, you can have HPV ((genital warts)) and not show signs/symptoms externally @ all. Please call your Dr and ask if she has tested you for that, if not you need to ask her why not

cambria · 08-17-2005, 11:39 AM

No, that was the weird thing. I specifically asked her if an HPV test would be done with the biopsied tissue and she said no. She said that HPV testing is very expensive, and that they only do it if it's requested along with a pap; they don't just do it as standard procedure, even with a colposcopy. I thought that was very strange. I mean, shouldn't a person be aware if they HPV or not? Especially if it's causing high-grade abnormalities? I'm sure I probably could have requested the testing but I have no insurance and this whole thing is probably going to cost me like $1500-2000 total as it is. Plus, I'm in a monogamous (sp?) relationship with my fiance, whom I'm sure I've already given it to, so really, I guess there's no huge reason for me to know. But yeah, I thought that was really odd too, that she said it wouldn't be tested for HPV. Especially since, along with HPV testing, they identify what strain of HPV it is so they know whether it's a high-risk cancer type or not.