First off I would express concern that you did not have a Pap for 9 years while glad that nothing negative occurred, i.e. invasive cancer as a result. I fail to understand your confusion and why you think there could be some mistake in your results. HPV is known to go dormant for months, years or decades. This does not mean you no longer have the virus but simply that it is not active at this time. You do not mention your age but particularly after 30 I suggest you become more vigilent regarding your Paps and also requesting the HPV test regardless of the Pap results. paps are known to show negative but HPV precancerous lesions still present so you do not want a reflexive test which means it is only done if the pap is abnormal. You are probably too old to receive the vaccine which given your prior dignosis your doctor should have recommended before you turned 27 or you should have requested it. Given the numerous strains of HPV the vaccine could have protected you against the two major cancer causing strains but not at this point unfortunately. Hopefully all future paps and HPV tests will remain negative.
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First off I would express concern that you did not have a Pap for 9 years while glad that nothing negative occurred, i.e. invasive cancer as a result. I fail to understand your confusion and why you think there could be some mistake in your results. HPV is known to go dormant for months, years or decades. This does not mean you no longer have the virus but simply that it is not active at this time. You do not mention your age but particularly after 30 I suggest you become more vigilent regarding your Paps and also requesting the HPV test regardless of the Pap results. paps are known to show negative but HPV precancerous lesions still present so you do not want a reflexive test which means it is only done if the pap is abnormal. You are probably too old to receive the vaccine which given your prior dignosis your doctor should have recommended before you turned 27 or you should have requested it. Given the numerous strains of HPV the vaccine could have protected you against the two major cancer causing strains but not at this point unfortunately. Hopefully all future paps and HPV tests will remain negative.
January 19, 2012 - 9:00pmThis Comment
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