Hi,
I just wanted to share my last week of absolute hell was for nothing. I had myself absolutely convinced I had cancer, dead and buried, because my smear test was such a strange result - ASC-H.
My GP, in fairness is about 25 years old, wasn't very good at explaining this result, and kept going on about why I shouldn't have missed smears for so long and this is a bad result and so I was up the walls. I rang every morning to the colposcopy clinic hoping for a cancellation and got one today - which was fine and the Gynaecologist told me that ASC-H is a result which means that the cells are atypical (could be for loads of reasons) and normally this would be a repeat smear in 6 months BUT the lab technician just wasn't certain there wasn't a possibility that some cells might be changing into bad ones, or some cells weren't clear and they couldn't be 100% sure of the lower result so as a precaution they use this result. It means that you aren't leaving something to go worse over the next few months.
My Gynaecologist could not see any areas of lesions, Low or High grade and so she took cells from the canal bit just to be sure but she said she would be STUNNED if there was any major result back from biopsy, and thought the liklihood is it will come back normal.
To be honest having the colposcopy was a relief - she could have driven a tractor up my ladygarden if she had wanted I really wanted her to do whatever she needed to do - she took biopsies from my entire cervix to be extra sure because I had come in so worried.
Also she told me the slow growing cells we are dealing with here are skin cells - so I should think of it like a freckle that your dermatologist wants to keep an eye on. Its the same thing. Sometimes dermatologists, and gynacologists decide that they don't want to take a risk on a freckle and take it off - it doesn't mean you have cancer, its preventative surgery - and nobody will ever know if that freckle would have ever gone malignant.
Anyway once I got my colposcopy done I swear I've never felt such relief - and I just wanted to say to everyone with an ASC-H result - its a very vague result according to my gynae - don't worry and just get in for your colposcopy - sure its never pleasant to have a speculum in but these doctors actually want to see our fannies!! They love their jobs and I'd say they look at it in the same way dentists look at gobs! When you're interested in something you want to see it as much as possible so even if you have a weird fanny (which is everyones fear I think) think about how interesting they will find that!!
Also my Gynae told me that the MAJORITY of Colposcopy results are NORMAL! So if you think about that it might help you stop worrying - if everyone who is in for a colposcopy has had a bad smear result, but most people get a normal colposcopy result - well the smear is clearly not 100% and you do have to remember the lab techs aren't experts, they are working in a lab looking at one sample after another, then going on their break and back in until 5. The experts invented the test and its fantastic because it gets us in for further testing making sure we all catch things in time.
Anyway wanted to share because this page helped me this week! I was so sure my long wait between smears was going to mean I had cancer and that I would be a cautionary tale for everyone!! I'll never miss another smear!!
X
