Hello. My pap smear came back positive. I've been diagnosed with HPV16.
Human Papiloma Virus 16 & 18 are the most deadly, and are responsible for cervical cancer. I still need further testing to see if I have any cancerous cells. Does anyone else have HPV? what can you tell me about your personal experience with this? I'm really anxious. It's been 5.5 yrs since my last Pap.
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This was me last year. This was my first, what they now call ‘cervical screening’, I’d always had Pap smears, yearly after children , then bi annually as I always had results that would be flagged. Previously Pap smears didn’t check for HPV. So when I got the dreaded call back of a HPV reading, I thought the absolute worst. My partner had been cheating, I’m going to get cancer, all the worst case scenarios. I was sent to a gynaecologist to do a more detailed cervical screening, thankfully, I got the all clear.
If I could suggest one thing, while waiting for your next appointment, consider taking a quality women’s vaginal care probiotic supplement. They are one small tablet a day, these were really beneficial for me and helped my body trying to naturally fight the infection. I continued taking these for 12 months, til my follow up appointment with the gyno and the results came back all clear.
This is also one of those situations where Dr Google was of absolute no help! Did nothing but instil more fear.
More than 90 percent of people get HPV in their lifetime. It is all this silly fearmongering they are doing. Previously they did not even test for it. Majority of people naturally recover from this within two years.
This suggests to me that majority of us are going to come up positive at some point or another. It's only a problem if the virus persists. Boost your immune system, take a good probiotic. The internet is all doom and gloom but come back to the fact that previously most of us would not have even known about this and would have just gotten on with our lives.
As for the cheating. I read you can get it off things like toilet seats. It is not as likely but can occur.