Good morning
I just wanted to update you following my Colposcopy yesterday. I was sooooo nervous all day but put my big girl pants on and got there! The nurses were lovely, they sat me down and asked a couple of questions, then they told me what they were going to do. I didn’t have to mess about too much getting changed as I wore a dress and sandals so literally just took off my underwear- I highly recommend doing this!
The Colposcopy its self was similar to a smear test just lasted a little longer and slightly more uncomfortable, however you can watch it on the screen if you want to, I chose not to as I was terrified I was going to get bad results! After a good look around and all the solutions applied to my cervix the Colposcopist was really happy and did not find any cell changes at all, therefore I didn’t need a biopsy which was really good news and I have been discharged and put back on to 3 yearly smears! I cried with relief as soon as she told me this - may sound a bit dramatic but I did! I wanted to come back on and share my story as I really struggled mentally waiting for this appointment and I wanted to leave this here so people can see there are positive outcomes too.
I did ask why I had been put back to three years as the HPV positive diagnosis has terrified me for the last 2 years but I got some clarity on just how common it is and that in some women it can persist longer than 2 years ( this is only an average when they say it clears within 1-2 years but everyone is different!) but you can still shake it eventually and just because you have HPV doesn’t mean it is going to definitely cause cell changes it just puts you at higher risk of this.
So now I am going to get back to my life and put this to the back of my mind. There are so many people on here who are going through so much worse and who I admire for their positivity and determination to help other people by sharing their stories. I feel a bit of a fraud writing mine, but when I was awaiting my follow up yearly smears and then my colposcopy I feel reading a story similar to mine that doesn’t always end in the worst case scenario would have been really helpful, however quite rightly, when people have a great result they may not want to come back on here to share they will just get on with their lives, so I promised myself that if I had a good outcome which I have, that I would take the time to come on it to share it to hopefully provide some level of comfort to people who get a similar result to me.
So much more needs to be done to raise awareness on HPV and what it actually means. A lot of unnecessary stress could have been relieved if more information was provided at the beginning of the journey.
Take care everyone.
xx
. Xxx
