Test results

I recently went for my first smear albeit 10 years late! I got my results today which says that there was no trace of the hpv virus so they didn’t look for abnormal cells as I’m unlikely to have any. 

Now I’m worried that I’ve had the virus in the past which resulted in abnormal cells and now the virus has gone but the abnormal cells are still present?

I thought the whole point of a smear was to look for abnormal cells? 

My understanding is that if your immune system clears the HPV then it clears the abnormal cells as it does so. xx

Thank you