Hello!
I’ve posted in the colposcopy thread previously with more details of my story. I’ve had symptoms of bleeding after sex (for about two years), pain during sex, pain daily in that area, and bleeding when going to the bathroom. With all these symptoms my doctor did a pap, despite me being young (21). While doing the pap, she mentioned my cervix didn’t look very good, was ‘friable’ and bled a lot during the pap. She did swabs for infections, and said she would send an HPV test along with the pap. When I got my results back, they were abnormal as expected, so I am being sent for a colposcopy.
All of this was straight forward and made sense to me, however, when sending the referral through for the colposcopy, she mentioned that I should get the HPV vaccine. I was confused, as I was under the impression that almost all dysplasia found is caused by HPV, with a very small chance (less than 1%) that it isn’t. I asked her about this, and she said my HPV result was “inconclusive” so she thinks I should get it anyway?
All of this doesn’t seem to make sense to me. First off, I thought the HPV vaccine mainly works if administered before you are sexually active, which is why it is recommended for young teenagers. Also, if I already have dysplasia isn’t it more likely that I have HPV that wasn’t caught on the pap? Should I wait until my colposcopy to decide if I should get this vaccine? Would the colposcopy biopsy show a more conclusive result of HPV?
I know that is a lot of questions, I appreciate any insight anyone may have!
Thanks so much