If you or your partner is promiscuous, this post is not for you. If you are in a long-term, completely monogamous relationship or celibate, read on.
For years I suffered through the annual torture of a pap smear. I was told that birth control pills upped my risk of cancer so I needed to be screened annually. I sort of looked at it as the price I had to pay-- I wanted the prescription so I had to take the test. Once I was off of birth control pills I no longer had to make the annual visit and the window between when I'd bother with a well woman exam kept spreading wider. I was feeling a bit guilty about not having a pap smear in a number of years, until we looked it up to see how often it was recommended... and then learned even more.
Honestly, I'm not even sure I knew which cancers a pap smear tested for-- just female part cancers. I'd just had it continually drummed in to me that it was a super important way to prevent cancer (and who doesn't want to prevent cancer, right?) The government said that I need this test. My insurance company said I need this test. I definitely didn't understand that it only tests for cervical cancer and I most certainly didn't know that a person had to had to be infected with HPV virus, a sexually transmitted disease, to get cervical cancer. (According to the American Cancer Society "a woman must be infected with HPV in order to develop cervical cancer" link)
I have been happily married for 20+ years. My husband and I were both virgins when we married. I was aghast to find out I'd endured this uncomfortable test for a disease I had zero percent risk for! In this article it mentions a study of 13,000 nuns (not sexually active). ZERO got cervical cancer. Think about that next time someone quotes cancer risk statistics. Zero in 13,000. In another article clearly very pro testing for HPV it states, you can get HPV "unless you are both virgins and have never fooled around". Love it when a very pro testing article makes the argument against testing for me :-)
Frankly it makes me angry. It comes down to the fact that doctors don't believe their patients' sexual history. They don't believe it is possible for someone to not sleep around and be married to someone who does not sleep around. They don't take you seriously when you say that is the case. They do not create testing recommendations for a group they don't believe exists. Or is it all about the money?
Pap smears are a huge industry. Think of how many tests the labs run and charge insurance for every year. Think how many annual exams are scheduled with gynecologists and family practitioners because of these recommended tests. Whatever the motivations, there is a bunch of unnecessary testing going on.
And some might say, better safe than sorry. What can it hurt to do too many tests? You might say, well, if you really have no risk, your pap smear will always be negative. No worries. Unfortunately, pap smears are also wildly inaccurate--somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% accurate. So 30% of all pap smear readings are WRONG. And due to our lawyer happy society if the results aren't clear they will error toward the conservative side, call the test irregular and order a cervical biopsy.
From Web MD link
"Paradoxically, increasing PAP smear sampling among low risk women actual increases your chance of getting a “false positive” one day. For example (DeMay, 2000), if you get a yearly PAP between the ages of 18 to 78, and one assumes a 5% incidence of false positives, you would have a 95% chance of getting a false positive report during that time."
From the NY times link
"In general, about 10% of Pap smears have abnormal results, but only about 0.1% of the women who have these results actually have cancer."
In other words, out of 100 women with abnormal pap smears 99 of them were scared out of their wits and likely had their cervix scarred because of an inaccurate pap test.
Biopsies are talked about as a simple test all the time, so I don't think many people register what they are. A biopsy equals cutting a decent sized chunk out of your cervix! To test for a disease which I would not have. So it is very possible that a person with no risk could have a false positive and have to undergo a cervical biopsy. A biopsy which WILL cause scar tissue that will be there for life. And can cause all kinds of side effects. Not to mention the pain of the actual test. All "just to be on the safe side"
Want to see what they do for a cevical biopsy. Here is a video. VERY GRAPHIC.
Biopsy of Vaginal and Cervical Lesions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JgsW-HjtWs
Colposcopy Procedure (with biopsy)
At time 3:23 is when they take the biopsy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ld_JWH8tU
Biopsy is HIGHLY invasive "just to be safe" isn't good enough.
The other frightening aspect is the risk of cross-contamination. My husband and I both are HPV free. Zero risk there. I'm sure there are other patients that go to my gynecologist's office who have HPV. One sloppy moment-- cleaning equipment, changing gloves, etc.--and it could be transferred to me. Yes, it's not super common, but it does happen. It is a risk. Just like there is a risk of getting cancer. Having an exam and pap smear actually increases my risk of cervical cancer. But no doctor or nurse or goverment program will ever warn me of that!
Links to some articles about cross contamination. Google and you'll find lots more. Does unnecceary testing put people at risk? Yes it does.
2010 in texas 70 speculums were not sterilized cross contaminating patients link
Discussion of several incidents link
Dangers of using reusable speculums link
Study finds HPV on spculums AFTER cleaning link
Another good article:
Top Five Reasons for Opting Out of Pap Tests link
For years I suffered through the annual torture of a pap smear. I was told that birth control pills upped my risk of cancer so I needed to be screened annually. I sort of looked at it as the price I had to pay-- I wanted the prescription so I had to take the test. Once I was off of birth control pills I no longer had to make the annual visit and the window between when I'd bother with a well woman exam kept spreading wider. I was feeling a bit guilty about not having a pap smear in a number of years, until we looked it up to see how often it was recommended... and then learned even more.
Honestly, I'm not even sure I knew which cancers a pap smear tested for-- just female part cancers. I'd just had it continually drummed in to me that it was a super important way to prevent cancer (and who doesn't want to prevent cancer, right?) The government said that I need this test. My insurance company said I need this test. I definitely didn't understand that it only tests for cervical cancer and I most certainly didn't know that a person had to had to be infected with HPV virus, a sexually transmitted disease, to get cervical cancer. (According to the American Cancer Society "a woman must be infected with HPV in order to develop cervical cancer" link)
I have been happily married for 20+ years. My husband and I were both virgins when we married. I was aghast to find out I'd endured this uncomfortable test for a disease I had zero percent risk for! In this article it mentions a study of 13,000 nuns (not sexually active). ZERO got cervical cancer. Think about that next time someone quotes cancer risk statistics. Zero in 13,000. In another article clearly very pro testing for HPV it states, you can get HPV "unless you are both virgins and have never fooled around". Love it when a very pro testing article makes the argument against testing for me :-)
Frankly it makes me angry. It comes down to the fact that doctors don't believe their patients' sexual history. They don't believe it is possible for someone to not sleep around and be married to someone who does not sleep around. They don't take you seriously when you say that is the case. They do not create testing recommendations for a group they don't believe exists. Or is it all about the money?
Pap smears are a huge industry. Think of how many tests the labs run and charge insurance for every year. Think how many annual exams are scheduled with gynecologists and family practitioners because of these recommended tests. Whatever the motivations, there is a bunch of unnecessary testing going on.
And some might say, better safe than sorry. What can it hurt to do too many tests? You might say, well, if you really have no risk, your pap smear will always be negative. No worries. Unfortunately, pap smears are also wildly inaccurate--somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% accurate. So 30% of all pap smear readings are WRONG. And due to our lawyer happy society if the results aren't clear they will error toward the conservative side, call the test irregular and order a cervical biopsy.
From Web MD link
"Paradoxically, increasing PAP smear sampling among low risk women actual increases your chance of getting a “false positive” one day. For example (DeMay, 2000), if you get a yearly PAP between the ages of 18 to 78, and one assumes a 5% incidence of false positives, you would have a 95% chance of getting a false positive report during that time."
From the NY times link
"In general, about 10% of Pap smears have abnormal results, but only about 0.1% of the women who have these results actually have cancer."
In other words, out of 100 women with abnormal pap smears 99 of them were scared out of their wits and likely had their cervix scarred because of an inaccurate pap test.
Biopsies are talked about as a simple test all the time, so I don't think many people register what they are. A biopsy equals cutting a decent sized chunk out of your cervix! To test for a disease which I would not have. So it is very possible that a person with no risk could have a false positive and have to undergo a cervical biopsy. A biopsy which WILL cause scar tissue that will be there for life. And can cause all kinds of side effects. Not to mention the pain of the actual test. All "just to be on the safe side"
Want to see what they do for a cevical biopsy. Here is a video. VERY GRAPHIC.
Biopsy of Vaginal and Cervical Lesions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JgsW-HjtWs
Colposcopy Procedure (with biopsy)
At time 3:23 is when they take the biopsy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ld_JWH8tU
Biopsy is HIGHLY invasive "just to be safe" isn't good enough.
The other frightening aspect is the risk of cross-contamination. My husband and I both are HPV free. Zero risk there. I'm sure there are other patients that go to my gynecologist's office who have HPV. One sloppy moment-- cleaning equipment, changing gloves, etc.--and it could be transferred to me. Yes, it's not super common, but it does happen. It is a risk. Just like there is a risk of getting cancer. Having an exam and pap smear actually increases my risk of cervical cancer. But no doctor or nurse or goverment program will ever warn me of that!
Links to some articles about cross contamination. Google and you'll find lots more. Does unnecceary testing put people at risk? Yes it does.
2010 in texas 70 speculums were not sterilized cross contaminating patients link
Discussion of several incidents link
Dangers of using reusable speculums link
Study finds HPV on spculums AFTER cleaning link
Another good article:
Top Five Reasons for Opting Out of Pap Tests link
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