Papillomavirus, despite negative paps
Good morning, everyone. I’m writing to you because my world has collapsed for a week. I would like to hear the HPV experiences of someone who has been through what I’m going through. I’m 25 years old, and since I was 17, I have regularly gone to an HPV gynaecologist at least once a year, complete with a pap test. In 2011, the pap smear was positive for type 2 papilloma.
The gynaecologist told me that it was not a worrying type and gave me a very mild treatment consisting only of douching and ovules. I did this treatment, and after a few months, I did the pap exam again, and it came out negative. He didn’t have me do a colposcopy or biopsy because he told me it wasn’t necessary. From 2011 to now, I’ve always had a pap smear yearly, which always comes out negative, so I’ve never been worried.
Recent Symptoms and Concerns
Now, since the end of October, I started to have blood loss between one cycle and another. I went to see my gynaecologist because I knew that it wasn’t normal to have blood outside of my period. And he downplayed it by telling me that it was probably a hormonal problem. He gave me a treatment of hormones (lutenyl) for about twenty days. I did this treatment, but unfortunately, the losses continued even in the next cycle, so I decided to be seen by another gynaecologist because mine seemed a little ‘ superficial.
On Wednesday, 2 December, I went to this new gynaecologist who presented me with a completely different situation that I wasn’t expecting. First of all, when he visits me, he tells me that I am full of warts under my labia minora (something that my gynaecologist, who has visited me for years, has never seen) and that I also have a lesion on the cervix definitely due to papilloma. So he immediately gave me a full pap test, which he told me was more specific than a simple pap test and a colposcopy, where he immediately found a mosaic lesion. I’ll have to wait until mid-December for the results, but I fell for the clouds. That is, years and years of careful visits and pap tests, and my gynaecologist never noticed anything. Not even external warts?
Anxiety and Uncertainty
Now, I don’t know what awaits me; I expect the worst because if this is the virus I have had since 2011 and not a recurrence, it means that the virus has had almost 5 years to spread, and I don’t dare think what will come out of the results of the colposcopy and the full pap test. The new gynaecologist has already told me about an operation that can also be done under local anaesthesia for the uterus. I think it’s called colonisation, but I can’t understand the seriousness of it.
Can anyone who’s been through it tell me what? What Should I expect? I swear that my world has collapsed because I have always been careful to examine myself at least once a year and have always trusted, but it wasn’t enough. What do they do to do the pap test if, in the meantime, it gives results? Sorry if I’ve dragged on, but I’m exasperated.
Oh
I forgot to say that I did the last pap test in April this year and this one also came out negative. I’ve been in a stable relationship for a year. But we always do it protected because by not taking the pill, I prefer to avoid the risk of pregnancy. Until I met this guy, I went almost a year without having intercourse. Before that, I had been in a stable relationship for three years. And it was my previous partner who attacked me with papilloma. However, I have never had sexual promiscuity subsequently, which is why I think that it is the same virus that I was diagnosed with in 2011
Comments
kleis_10941091 User
I understand you. In reading your story I see myself in a similar situation for some things. I also had negative pap tests for two and a half years but positive for HPV. My previous gynaecologist had never had me do a colposcopy because the Pap smear didn’t show even the slightest alteration, and a specific test (HPV-DNA Test) detected the presence of HPV. Now, I unfortunately had to change doctors, and the new doctor gave me a shot. Result: suspicious area, awaiting biopsy results.
Stay Calm
HOWEVER:
They told me I must stay calm because these HPV things can happen to anyone. An active sexual life exposes one to HPV contagion, EVEN FOR THOSE WHO HAVE AN ATTITUDE THAT IS FAR FROM BEING PROMISCUS and 90% of women are infected in their lifetime, especially at a young age. Performing colonisation or vaporisation surgery with the laser is a preventive activity, which eliminates small lesions which, PERHAPS, IN TWENTY YEARS, can become very dangerous, or perhaps even disappear on their own due to the effect of the immune system but, in doubt, they are removed.
The laser is done in the most superficial cases, and colonisation, on the other hand, is the removal of a part of the cervix where there is the area to be removed in the shape of a cone. Neither of these interventions affects fertility; they are one outpatient (laser) and one-day hospital (colonisation).
I would take everything I said with a pinch of salt because I am not a doctor but simply a girl as worried and anxious as you are who has asked her doctors to find out everything she can. If I can help you, please write to me. However, I wish you good luck, and you will see that we will solve everything. Kisses.
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Response by Titti
Thank you dear
For answering me. So, is it quite common for the Pap result to come back negative even when, in reality, there is the virus? Sorry, but I’m ignorant, and doctors tell me everything and the opposite of everything. Even this gynaecologist reassured me by telling me that I’ll get over it, but I always think of the worst because it was like a bolt from the blue. You’re waiting, too. Of the results, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, too; maybe we’ll keep ourselves updated.
I’m angry with my previous gynaecologist because he underestimated everything. He used to check me up and always told me that my cervix was perfect. But this new HPV doctor told me to visit, and immediately, the test saw a lesion. And to think that my old gynaecologist was considered one of Rome’s best and most competent. I don’t understand. I don’t close my eyes for whole nights I think of the worst things. I’m only 25 years old and can’t handle it correctly. These days, I’ve closed myself off. If I could, I wouldn’t even go to work. But maybe I have to force myself and lead a normal life because there’s no point in feeling sorry for myself.
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Comment by kleis_10941091
I know!
Go figure, of course.
I had a terrible time, too. Last week, while waiting for the colposcopy, I completely lost contact with HPV reality: I couldn’t understand anything anymore! I’m 27, and I was already thinking absurd things. I couldn’t think of anything else, and I did nothing but search for testimonials on the internet, trying to calm myself down, but in reality, I always had the opposite effect.
Paradoxically, after being told that there was a strange area, I felt calmer! Okay, I know now, and we can intervene. Let’s keep ourselves updated. You’ll see that, in the bad cases, we will have to have the laser. Or, in very bad cases, have a small, stupid operation that will save us many years from possible (and I underline possible) complications.
Addressing Your Question
To answer your question, yes, a woman may have the virus without having manifestations of the virus. It may have happened that the virus was silent for some time and has now started to show up for both of us. On the other hand, the Test Doctor pointed out that if the HPV virus remained latent. And we could not intervene but only wait. Now that it has had some skirmishes, we can intervene and, in all probability, kill (by removing) many viruses (sorry, but I am not very competent, and I certainly use the wrong or imprecise terms). Our immune system will defeat those few HPV lesions that remain.
In short, we don’t have to worry, but we should take care of this nuisance. I have heard from many friends who have had HPV colonisation, laser, etc. And who have had a very normal life, and the operations themselves have not caused them any particular discomfort. Why should it be bad for us? Don’t worry; let’s not bandage our heads before falling; positivity will help our immune system.