instruction: about a month ago I had a pap smear that came back abnormal and was told I have hav my do then did a colposcopy two weeks ago I got a call today saying that it came back normal what does this mean do I still have hav do I just have low risk hav I have never experienced warts
output: hello welcome to icliniq there is a difference between all the tests you underwent to make it clear for you I will explain one at a time pap smear it is a test used to screen if a women can be harbouring cancerous or precancerous cells over the mouth of the uterus I cervix so basically a screening test for cervical cancer and it is pre cancerous changes and as it is just a screening tests it can not always diagnose if you have any foi of cancer over the cervix it just give characteristics of the cells which were studied on the smears so unless they are overtly cancerous looking we always try to rule that out by doing other tests so next comes the hav human papilloma virus testing hav testing it a test to detect the causative agent of the cervical cancer that is human papilloma virus it is spread through sexual contact based on their genomic sequence they can be categorised into various types so warts are caused by the low risk type that is where as there some 12 high risk types which can cause cervical cancer so these are detected in the hav testing depending on your test done as various tests have different sensitivity specificity of these high risk majority are caused by type 16 18 so once a women starts her sexual activity almost 70 80 women may have hav infection but it gets cleared over 2years so that is why we do not test it for women less than 30years I see you have not mentioned your age so as the hav is a virus and it coming positive indicates higher risk of having precancerous changes or may be risk of cervical cancer in future we need to see if any changes have already happened to substantiate the previous tests so then comes the role of colposcopy colposcopy it is basically a test to visualise the cervix under huge magnification and to see for any deviation from normal and to look for any changes over the cervix which can hint on being abnormal or precancerous so that from that particular abnormal sites biopsies cane taken and subjected to histopathological examination where a pathologist sees the tissue under microscope to look for any cancerous cell so as your colposcopy finding are normal your gynaec may call you repeat testing after 12months for repeat cytology hav testing if the repeat screening are negative twice then you can just follow the screening protocols routinely as other women please share the reports of your hav pap smear so that I can go through guide you through in case you any further doubts hope the information helps you have a nice day