Can you ease my mind tonight about abnormal pap results?

You are right to call your doctor tomorrow, but take some reassurance that the results are not what would normally prompt a followup now, but only a test in a year.

And you have been safe sexually, between condom use and Gardisil, so take heart that your chances of having HPV are pretty low.

You should definitely follow up with your doctor to rule out anything serious, but it’s way too early for you to be worried. This occurs quite frequently, and could be anything. I think when this happens in my region (I’m in Canada), they do the follow up right away, but this has never happened to me personally – only to friends – so I can’t speak from personal experience.

I had the exact same results in a pap test when I was in my early 20’s. When they re-ran the test, it was fine. It was a faulty result on the first one according to my doctor. But I think to ease your mind, calling tomorrow is a good idea.

Glad to see you back!

Don’t worry. Just schedule the repeat Pap smear. Maybe he will run the test that looks for HPV also. Abnormal in your case could mean simply that the tissues were a little inflamed, and the next test could be normal. If you have HPV they will take care of it for you. This happens to women all the time, and it’s usually nothing to worry much about, except that if it is something hat needs to be treated you need to take care of it. A lot of young women go from a “positive” Pap smear back to negative without having to do anything, but you do to want to just ignore it.

When in my cycle should I get retested? If it is because of my period I don’t want to just get the same error again. I’m about to start my period any day now.

Good to see you too chyna!! I feel bad for being so absent. Work is so much…work!!

I meant to write you don’t want to just ignore it.

Go a week or two after your period ends. Maybe the blood can be irritating to the tissues. You could certainly ask your doctor what is the ideal time, I’m just guessing.

Be thankful you even had this test done and the good news is you do not have cancer and there are a myriad of other reasons that could be the reason the doc suggests the need for a followup screening in a year. If it was a real concern they would be dragging you in for additional testing. A consultation with your doc is in order to get their professional opinion over what you should be focusing on for your continued health as you go forward in life.

Take comfort knowing that you did the responsible thing and had the test. As @JLeslie said, the “positive” result might turn out to be nothing. But, if you do, indeed, have abnormal cells, early detection and treatment usually have a good outcome.

Your chances of having HPV are very low.

@Love_my_doggie Your chances of having HPV are very low. Can I ask how you know this to be the case?

Having just been through several medical tests (including an MRI) which produced scary-sounding initial results, I totally understand your apprehension. It’s sheer torture to wait to talk to the doctor. But the final prognosis of my tests turned out much better than I expected once I knew all the facts, and @Mariah, I’m betting yours will, too. Please let us know.

It’s not uncommon for women to get ‘abnormal’ results. It is probably just a glitch with your system or theirs. However, I do understand that you will now feel anxious about this so I’d speak to your doctor just to put your mind at ease. Great that you are having regular pap smears. Too many women don’t.

Many times an incorrect sample can cause this. Nothing wrong with you but a poor scraping taken by the nurse. It’s happened to me.

Abnormal cells means it just wasn’t what they expected. It isn’t at all unusual. I’m not sure I’d wait a year to retest though.

Did you get to talk to your doctor today?

I didn’t notice it said one year. I’d repeat it sooner too. I’d get the HPV test.

The deal is, they are now recommending young women get tested once every three years, because sometimes the body’s own immune systems fights off the bad stuff on it’s own. They found young women can be “positive” on a Pap smear and then a year later negative. Here’s the thing, if your the rare one who develops cancer of some sort of aggressive form it’s obviously not good. I think all women should still get tested ice a year, and an abnormal go back in 6 months or less. If your concerned I think you should just read up on the different studies.

If you go back within the next two months, waiting at least a few days after sex and mid cycle-ish and it’s negative, then you can stop worrying.

I have always thought “abnormal” is a terrible, unnecessarily alarmist word for it. By far the most common scenario is for one pap to be “abnormal” and the next year’s pap to be normal, so I would not worry about this. But your doc can clarify for you.

Did you get any additional info?

Yeah sorry for coming back with an update so late. So I was told that the cells were of “undeterminable significance” and that repeating the test in a year is the precaution they are taking; they said normally women my age do not need a test every year. I asked if they’re very confident that it’s safe to wait a full year and they said yes. I don’t know. I’m not really worried anymore. Apparently weird test results happen all the time and aren’t usually significant.

Got this repeated a couple weeks ago; just got the results: normal and HPV negative. Woo!

Good! One less thing to worry about.