Need Pap Smear?!
Question: I am 20 and have only had one sex partner for about 2 years. I know that he and I are STD free. I feel embarrassed to go to the doctor to have them look down there. If I have only had one partner why is it necessary to go. I know cervical and breast cancer are checked for...and through a pap only cervical cancer is diagnosed but isnt it true that cervical cancer occurs mainly in women in their 30's and highly in ppl with HPV. When should I get my first pap at the latest..?
Answers: I am 20 and have only had one sex partner for about 2 years. I know that he and I are STD free. I feel embarrassed to go to the doctor to have them look down there. If I have only had one partner why is it necessary to go. I know cervical and breast cancer are checked for...and through a pap only cervical cancer is diagnosed but isnt it true that cervical cancer occurs mainly in women in their 30's and highly in ppl with HPV. When should I get my first pap at the latest..?
Your body is a beautiful thing and nothing to be embarrassed about. If if helps, any health professional performing a pap smear has likely seen many other genetalia, on both live and dead specimens.
The women with cervical cancer in their thirties had early changes in the cells of their cervix that could have been picked up on a pap smear. The longer you wait, the more serious the change becomes and the harder it is to treat.
Most medical professionals will agree that after starting intercourse, a female should have a pap smear annually. I wouldn't argue with that!
By the way, congratulations on keeping one stable sexual partner; this significantly decreases your risk.
im not sure about the age it occurs mainly in but yes it does occur a lot in girls with HPV. but i think u should jus go and get it over with. dont be embarassed, its not like they will judge u or anything. i am 17 an now feel completely comfortable with them. my first time i wuz embarassed but u kno wut, thats their job..
You should begin PAP tests when you're sexually active. If you feel embarrassed...try going to a female gynecologist. Sometimes that makes the appointment much easier
yes everyone women who has had sexually contact need to have a papsmear
please read below
when you have a pap smear is your decision, nobody can force you to have one if you don't want one. Of course many are going to convince you that you need one, or encourage you strongly, making you feel guilty if you don't or even threaten you to have one (and more).
My decision is to not have pap smears, because that's not my idea of taking care of your health (getting yourself humiliated just to serve a billion dollar industry that thrives on fear), besides pap smears do not prevent cervical cancer, they only may detect it.
What you should know is that it is never scientifically proven that HPV causes cervical cancer, that is a medical myth and most women with HPV, even cancer-associated strains, never develop cervical cancer. Most never even develop abnormal cells. In fact, most people with HPV cure themselves.
What's the dumbest argument that a lot of people and especially doctors (see medstudent) give to lure women into the stirrups, is 'your body is a beautiful thing and you shouldn't be embarrassed about it'
Uhm, it's not because one is embarrassed about spreading the legs for a stranger in white coat that they think they are ugly or are embarrassed about their body. Please, cut that crap! With this type of reasoning, rapists can as well justify what they do by saying that it is his victim that shouldn't be embarrassed about spreading for him (just to make it easier on him). Besides, the fact that he has seen plenty of genitalia should ease her mind as well....?
I say it again, doctors need to stop talking that crap and instead change THEIR methods to the patients needs. And those non-invasive methods are already invented you know, just not (yet) being offered to women. Why? In most cases they are not yet approved by the FDA, not because they aren't accurrate or safe, but because it is not in the interest of doctors. (they would lose a lot of money and power, if women stopped going for their 'annual' and get checked through a much more accurate and simple bloodtest or genetic test to detect the same thing).
I just wanted to let you know these facts, because you seem to be a smart girl that doesn't just accept everything being told to her, but wants to investigate herself if it is really worth it and you're right, at your age most doctors would even agree that you don't need a pap smear, except for American doctors of course, who even do pelvic exams on 11 year olds, 'just to make sure, you know'.
If you want to know more about those non-invasive PAP tests, check the second link below.
{Cervical Cancer Review
Cervical cancer, arising in the lining of the cervix, affects about 9,700 women in the United States each year. About 3,700 die. Worldwide, a half million get the disease and 233,000 die.
Back in the 1970s, herpes simplex virus (HSV) was proposed as the sexually transmitted cause of cervical cancer, based mostly on population studies that showed a correlation of the disease with HSV DNA. That approach shifted to HPV in the 1980s, and over the years population studies set the pace for the now well-accepted view that cervical cancer is strongly related to the transmission of HPV.
This is a group of more than 100 viruses, about 30 of which are said to be linked to cervical cancer. Of these 30 or so, HPV-16 is said to be found in 50 percent of cervical cancers. HPV-18 accounts for another 20 percent.
In addition to the population studies that link HPV to cervical cancer, there is, for example, research showing that HPV viral DNA can be found integrated in the genetic structure of cervical cancers.
Back in 1992, however, a question was raised about the dominant and increasingly entrenched theory that HPV causes cervical cancer. It came from Peter Duesberg and Jody Schwartz, molecular biologists at the University of California at Berkeley.
Among the various issues they raised about the acceptance of HPV as the cause of cervical cancer was their fundamental concern that there was a lack of consistent HPV DNA sequences and consistent HPV gene expression in tumors that were HPV-positive. They instead suggested that "rare spontaneous or chemically induced chromosome abnormalities which are consistently observed in both HPV and HSV DNA-negative and positive cervical cancers induce cervical cancer."
In short, Duesberg and Schwartz were pointing to the possibility that "carcinogens may be primary inducers of abnormal cell proliferation rather than HPV or HSV." And here's the key point: "Since proliferating cells [cancer cells dividing wildly] would be more susceptible to infection than resting cells, the viruses would just be indicators rather than causes of abnormal proliferation."
The concept they raised back in 1992 is still relevant today, only science has gone on to assume that causation of cervical cancer has been well established.
Even the National Cancer Institute (NCI) says that "direct" causation has not been demonstrated; however, the NCI and just about everyone else works with the principle that it has been established. Lip service is paid to other possible factors that may be involved in cervical cancer such as environmental conditions, including smoking. Even dietary factors -- particularly low levels of vitamin A and folate -- have been suggested as associated with a risk for cervical cancer.}