To think that you shouldn’t need to have HPV to access a smear test?

[Amima]

AIBU to think that women shouldn’t need to be HPV positive to access a smear test? Apparently this is the rule now. The NHS collects the sample from you and tests it for HPV. If it’s negative then they won’t do the actual test that checks for cancerous cells. All of this fuss about how important it is for women to get smear tests, and now they’ve basically put a stop to them.

Is the test for HPV and cell changes different?
Yes. They test your sample for HPV. If it’s positive they proceed to screen the sample for cell changes. If it’s negative they throw the sample in the bin and don’t screen for cell changes.

I've been under investigation before for unexplained bleeding etc. My smear test is due but if its just to check for hpv is there a point to it?

@Amima

Is the test for HPV and cell changes different? Yes. They test your sample for HPV. If it’s positive they proceed to screen the sample for cell changes. If it’s negative they throw the sample in the bin and don’t screen for cell changes.

Thanks, but I meant is the actual test different? Is it still legs akimbo with a speculum for HPV?

@XenoBitch

I am confused. Is the test for HPV and cell changes different?

The same sample is used for both tests. One test looks for either mRNA or DNA of high risk HPV types in the cervical cells. The other test takes cervical cells, stains them with different coloured dyes, puts them on a slide and people look at the cells under the microscope. There are approx 10,000 - 15,000 cells present on the slide of which the number of abnormal cells varies, it can be a handful or many.

I'd urge all the posters to check out the screening committee information, NHS CSP site, BSCPP and Jo's Trust to get more background information.

What also really concerns me is that I still thing it’s really important for women to go for their smear tests regardless of how they have changed the testing procedure, go for your smear test it takes a couple of minutes that’s all.

[quote conkersarebonkers]Soon we'll all just be doing HPV swabs ourselves at home ...

www.england.nhs.uk/2021/02/nhs-gives-women-hpv-home-testing-kits-to-cut-cancer-deaths/[/quote]
I wish I could get one. I cannot get a smear done as nobody even the hospital, could find my cervix, laying flat on a table. (Severe birth trauma, prolapse)

I can squat and find it easily. No smear done in 10 years. 46.

I have private medical insurance (England) and I get sent HPV test kits to do at home every two years. Internal swab and I post it off and get results in a few days. If they are ever positive I’d then be referred for a coloscopy. I’ve had positive HPV tests before and a death from cervical cancer in my immediate family so I have researched this as much as I can and I feel happy that I’m being testing this way. Much more convenient and less invasive, for starters.

@Wineandroses3

What also really concerns me is that I still thing it’s really important for women to go for their smear tests regardless of how they have changed the testing procedure, go for your smear test it takes a couple of minutes that’s all.

If HPV can be tested for with something non-invasive like a urine test, or a self administered swab (which I gather some places were trialling), then it would be a great help to women who struggle with the traditional smear test. What a relief it would be to be told your HPV test is clear and no further testing is needed... instead of going for the full on clamps etc.

If you re-read their posters, they had HPV negative results on their followup samples 6 months after treatment. This means the treatment worked

Erm, no. I've never had HPV at any time.

Good point xenobitch maybe that’s the future x

This is where my insurer (BUPA) directs me when I’m ordering my test kits:
www.check4cancer.com/private-cancer-tests/cervical-cancer

I am not in any way affiliated with them / advertising etc etc. I genuinely pay for and use these kits via my private health insurance.

@WhatAShilohPitt

This is where my insurer (BUPA) directs me when I’m ordering my test kits: www.check4cancer.com/private-cancer-tests/cervical-cancer

I am not in any way affiliated with them / advertising etc etc. I genuinely pay for and use these kits via my private health insurance.

Thank you ,but isn’t that just offering an HPV test which is what you get on the NHS anyway, although I understand for some women it would be more convenient to do the test from home etc, but I think a PP was trying to find out if you could get your cell sample looked privately at for cell changes.

I had cervical cancer last year. Caused by HPV. I'm still HPV positive now.

However I've been removed from the cervical screening programme as they will always come back dodgy, due to radiation damage.

As I've now had 2 clear MRI scans I won't get anymore. They said from now on it will be "symptom lead". This worries me as last time I had no symptoms - it was picked up on a routine smear.

I don’t need a HPV testing kit though. I know I don’t have HPV. I haven’t been anywhere to catch it. What I want is cervical cancer screening. Which apparently I can’t have because I don’t have HPV.

I think a PP was trying to find out if you could get your cell sample looked privately at for cell changes
You can’t. If you don’t have HPV it’s impossible to get screening for cell changes, even if you pay privately.

I still thing it’s really important for women to go for their smear tests regardless of how they have changed the testing procedure
They’re still calling it a “smear test” but now it’s just a HPV test. You can’t have the cell screening that used to be called a smear test unless you have HPV.

@Amima

I still thing it’s really important for women to go for their smear tests regardless of how they have changed the testing procedure They’re still calling it a “smear test” but now it’s just a HPV test. You can’t have the cell screening that used to be called a smear test unless you have HPV.

Yes I know. I completely agree with you. It’s a HPV screening programme.

It may be that less than 1% occurs with a negative HPV test. conversely isn't the risk of death from Coronavirus less than 1%for under 50s? Seems that not analysing women's smears without a positive HPV test is unjustified when you look at the reaction to covid. Is this a case of women's health being undermined? I hope it's just me looking at it wrong

What bothers me most about it is that seemingly for the sake of convenience all women are being asked to go through an invasive, often painful, sometimes psychologically difficult specimen collection, when that type of specimen will only actually turn out to be needed for some of them. Imagine men accepting having something routinely stuck up their cocks when a lot of the time a simpler test would do.

It may be that less than 1% occurs with a negative HPV test
Sucks if you’re in that 1% though! You’re basically dead. Whereas the cell screening we used to routinely get would have saved your life.

Or am I misunderstanding, and the HPV test has to be done on a sample collected the same way as a smear test?

So basically they are saying you can't get cervical cancer without getting HPV from a sexual partner first?

My laser excision for CIN-2 cells was in 2009, I was tested for HPV just before that procedure which was negative. I've been with DH since 1999, neither of us has had another sexual partner since then.

It sounds like any number of us could get cervical cancer, have no symptoms, have our smears, but these are not tested for cell changes as we don't have HPV, and then the cancer would be picked up really late, so loads of women are being thrown under the bus. Or are they saying you can never get cervical cancer if you don't have HPV?

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

Or am I misunderstanding, and the HPV test has to be done on a sample collected the same way as a smear test?

That is what I wonder too.

So basically they are saying you can't get cervical cancer without getting HPV from a sexual partner first?
99% of cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Women in the other 1% don’t matter, they’re just left to die of cancer.

@Chesneyhawkes1

I had cervical cancer last year. Caused by HPV. I'm still HPV positive now.

However I've been removed from the cervical screening programme as they will always come back dodgy, due to radiation damage.

As I've now had 2 clear MRI scans I won't get anymore. They said from now on it will be "symptom lead". This worries me as last time I had no symptoms - it was picked up on a routine smear.

I had cervical cancer about 8 years ago. HPV was never mentioned.

I had physical checks every 4 months for a year, then every 6 months for another couple of years, then annually for three more years.

I’d have been horrified to have been told what you have.