Had my colposcopy and punch biopsy last week and much like everyone else, I HATE waiting and thinking the worst.
My smear came back positive for HPV and low grade abnormal cells. When performing the colonoscopy, the nurse said my cervix looked a little bit worse than the smear. She said they can tell just from looking, but sometimes they get surprises (not very often though). I’m clinging on to the fact she said a ‘little’ bit different to the smear, and I’m praying it’s nothing scary.
Do you think the results come back quicker if it’s bad news ? X
Hi @Jenna27
There isnt a general rule for results just that they usually take around 2-4 weeks to come back sometimes sooner sometimes its longer if there are delays, people have waited any amount of time and been on either end of the diagnosis the only thing that makes them come back quicker than they would have is if they had been marked as urgent
Normally when they say it looks a little worse, they suspect it to be at a higher grade of CIN (not cancer) but arnt exactly sure what grade if CIN, cells can sometimes look worse than what they are by looking at them so they need to confirm it with accuracy but as both smears and colposcopies are both graded by eye, the punch biopsy is the diagnostic and can still come back as low grade
My first colposcopy was because of a borderline change smear, after theyd applied the solution she pulled a face and went “hmm im just gonna take some biopsies” not saying in so many words that she thinks its a higher grade but her tone of voice said it all lol my results came through 2 weeks later which only stated CIN1 and a cervical ectropion which hadnt been mentioned before
Looks can be deceiving so its not unheard of that the colposcopy could find a higher grade as smears dont actually diagnose our cells they just describe how different they are from normal indicating someone needs further investiagtions, but there is a big difference between how CIN cells look and how cancer cells look xx
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Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I’ve read so much stuff about all this but sometimes, it only makes sense when you hear it in someone else’s words. I really don’t mind what treatment I have, I just dread the thought of cancer/chemo 
I think it’s all heightened because my mom is just finishing chemo xx
