Ive been told that the cells tested in my pap smear are diffrent from the rest.....what could this mean?

Question

I recently had a pap smear due to other problems ive been having and the dr told me that the cells of the part they sampled from are diffrent. im kinda scared cus i had a friend who had cancer and she said the same thing was told to her by her dr, i kno i shouldnt base my life on someone elses but it just worries me. i kno the dr is not able to out right say its cancer. im getting a coloscopy done next month(I was kinda upset i had to wait that long) but what really upsets me is that the dr kept tellin me its no big deal. has this ever happened to anyone? what were the outcomes?

Answer 1

Sounds like you have had an abnormal pap smear.

It is most likely PRE cancerous cells.  

Most of these are caused by HPV (human papilloma virus)

If this is indeed what is happened they will possibly do a biopsy and more than likely freeze your cervix to make it sluff off the cells and on your way you will go.

You will need to continue with pap smears regularly at first 3 or 6 mths and then back to every year.

Answer 2

sometimes you can have an abnormal result in your papsmear if you are just coming off of your period or had s*x within 24 hours up to your appt.  good luck.

Answer 3

It's never happened to me before. But personally, I'd trust my friend over my doctor. Hope everything works out for you =/

Answer 4

i ad abnormal smear tests for yrs i ad to av dem every yr its only coz i got a hpv viris but after 3 yrs i went back to normal i also knew another gurl who ad a coloscopy done coz of da same problem i ad but shes all gud

Answer 5

This happened to me, and I was just as scared as you sound! The dr can tell from the lab results if your cells are extremely abnormal or just a little. My dr told me chances are I would be fine because although my cells were abnormal, they were not so abnormal that it would indicate cancer. I'm sure you are in the same boat I was in and that is why your dr told you not to worry about it. Plus, if they thought it was serious you would not have to wait a month for the coloscopy. You may I hope this makes you feel a little better.

Answer 6

It is some type of cervical dysplasia, which means that the cells are growing abnormally. There are several different stages, ranging from minor irregularities to full blown invasive cervical cancer.  Sometimes the tests come back abnormal but the next one is fine.  

I had a fast changing type of dysplasia that progressed to something called carcinoma-in-situ, which means cancer in place.  This is pre-invasive cancer that can be treated, since it was just a few small spots that were removed with by a treatment with a LEEP and now I have to get pap smears more often.