Still worried - follow up smear after CIN3

Cervical screening results
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In September 2020 I went for my routine smear test (aged 27). It came back showing I had high risk HPV and like so many of us, I automatically thought the worst. I was referred to the hospital for a biopsy where they found abnormal cell changes. I was then told I needed a colposcopy and LLETZ treatment. During this they found that I was HPV NEGATIVE but STILL had abnormal changes that needed to be removed. My cells were even graded as CIN3.

They sent me a letter a while later saying they were happy with the treatment carried out and to just go to my doctors for a smear test 6 months later.

So, I eventually had my smear test in October which literally just said that I was HPV negative. However, I was HPV negative when I had the abnormal cells so what’s to say that I don’t still have them and that they’re getting worse? Sorry if this is a stupid question! I went back to the doctors to query this and they even agreed and expressed concern but told me that they couldn’t redo my smear test because it had already been done and I wasn’t down for another one for another 3 years!

I am just so scared that my cells are changing and I have no idea and I assume my HPV could also come back at any point too. 3 years seems an awfully long time to wait and see. Has anyone been in this situation/know whether I’m worrying over nothing?

Thank you x

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Hi

Your worries are completely understandable when everything has been so confusing in the past and there are no silly questions here :slight_smile: x

based off what we know from HPV and abnormal cells, it may well be that when you had your 2020 smear it was active in your system allowing for the changes to happen but by the time your colposcopy appointment your immune system was able to suppress it which is why you were then negative but given the cells still being there they needed to be gone x if the abnormal cells were still present you would have been offered more treatment instead of them saying they were happy with what they had removed, abnormal cells generally only happen when an HPV infection is active in the system and even then it’s not always a guarantee that being HPV positive will lead to changes and if they do they generally take years to develop, so it’s very unlikely that any cells will have changes if you came back as HPV negative in October xx