Second Colposcopy

Last year following 2 abnormal smears I had a colposcospy and it showed borderline changes. I had a fine wire loop diathermy. I had my 6 month follow up smear and got the results yesterday. It said that the smear was normal but I still have HPV so need to go for another colposcopy. I know that it will probably be ok but I'm still really scared. There were 2 areas that had abnormal cells but they only removed 1 of them. I'm worried that they are still there but woud this have shown in the smear? Surely if the smear itself was normal then I just have the virus? 

Hello,

I'm sorry you're going all this anxiety at the moment. I can understand your worries and confusion. They've started using HPV testing as a way of managing ladies when they do cervical screening, and you can read more about it on the NHS screening website. It's something called HPV triage.

With a smear they sweep cells from an area called the transformation zone, this is where abnormalities are most likely to occur. With a colposcopy they can see and, if felt appropriate, biopsy other areas of the cerivx too. So colposcopy is more thorough than a smear, and because of the HPV they probably want to just take a better look. If they left an area before with borderline cells then it's possible, but not definite, that it could change to CIN. It this area was not where they took the smear from then a smear would not necessarily have picked it up. But equally the changes could have gone back to normal, which happens for many women, and everything could be fine apart from them picking up the virus. Being referred for a check is good thing in the sense that they'll have a proper look at you, but I totally get how scary it all is. 

Hope you're doing ok, take care x