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serafim_etal · Apr 25, 2009, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Sky

There's an HPV test that is far more accurate, and the two together will find all growths if present. The Pap is just about 50% accurate, and not for everything.

I'm not sexually active and therefore refuse the test and have no need for the HPV test either. The last pap I had caused me to bleed for 2 months...just from the test (as I'm past menopause onset.)

ivilliage.com has some interesting write-ups, as I'm sure many googled sites will tell the truths.

IDK if they create a baseline, like they do mamograms. That might be useful then to have that for one. (However I also stopped mammograms since the death rate of breast cancer increased some 340% once the insurance companies demanded yearly mammos. (Not the finding of breast cancer, breast cancer deaths increased. Doctors who are against the mammograms state they believe the pressure causes any possible issues to mestastacize rather than to remain small and incidental.))

BUT I'm not here to argue. I just think it's something women should read up about, and not just go do because some doctor says everyone has it.

In 1996 (27 years old) I had a pap test come back HSIL/CIN III (cancer insitu) at the time I was not sexually active, had not been sexually active since being abused as a young child, and my choice of partner would have been (and still is) female anyway. I ended up having a conization to remove cancerous cells (pathology came back positive), and then had to have a pap test every 3 months for a year, and then every 6 months for a year after that. I ended up having a hysterectomy at 32 due to endometriosis ( which can be found during the exam) and the fact that my pap test hit HSIL/CIN II that year, meaning the cancerous cells had returned...still no sexual activity with a male partner. There is much more involved with an anual exam, not just the pap test. All the pap test is, is a smear of cells that a lab looks at. While it is true that the test can give a false positive, a false positive is better, in my opinion, than no test and dying or never being able to have children because of falure to have the screening.

The most importnat thing to keep in mind is that the exam involves more than a pap smear...and more than HPV is looked for.