Dr. McDonald discusses abnormal pap smears and what a woman should so if she gets one.

Matt McDonald, MD: When a patient presents with an abnormal Pap smear, the initial question that most people have is what does this exactly mean. In a result in an abnormal Pap smear is strictly a screening test to help us know which patients require a further evaluation to detect if cervical dysplasia truly exists. A Pap smear is an excellent screening test. It is not an excellent diagnostic test and what that means is that within the realm of abnormal, meaning abnormal cells on the cervix which is called and physician terms dysplasia, a Pap smear is very good at telling us who has no dysplasia and who does have some dysplasia. But it is not is not a good test in telling us what degree that dysplasia exists and so information that is commonly presented or reported on Pap smears is whether a viral infection called HPV exists. Now HPV is a virus, otherwise known as human papilloma virus, which is incredibly common in the adult population. We don't really understand the true mechanism of why someone women are exposed to HPV and never develop dysplasia, but many do, most do in fact. They are exposed to HPV or the virus and really never develop severe dysplasia of the cervix or cervical cancer. That is an area that much research is going into at this time, but it alarms a of lot of women that they feel like something dramatically different has occurred that they have been exposed to HPV, but the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of us in our lifetime will exposed whether all of these exposures are sexually mediated or not, we really don't know, to be quite honest with you. There is some data and some case reports that HPV can be transmitted through nonsexual means. It is my opinion that there are nonsexual means of transmission of HPV due to the fact that so many of us, almost 90% of us have been exposed by the time we are 50.

So an abnormal pap smear truly is a screening test just to let us know which patients require further evaluation with a gynecologist for what is called colposcopy, which is a diagnostic test where we evaluate the cervix with threedimensional microscopy to see if true dysplasia truly exists. So an abnormal pap smear really is just the very initial beginning of the workup of abnormal cells or dysplasia on the surface.

Learn more about Dr. McDonald: http://presbyteriangyncancer.org/?id=...