GynoFiles

Women hear so much about mammography that it over shadows the fact that women are to see their gyno, or their health care provider, every year for a clinical breast exam. Yearly breast exams should begin at age 19. Not only that, but then you can have consultation regarding symptoms and risk categories and make an informed decision as to when the best time to start mammograms for you will be. The news once again has broken with a new guideline for mammography, with the American Cancer Society proclaiming women should get yearly mammography from 45 to 54, lots of opinions abound, here's one from USA today . And here's an article that focuses on both benefits and potential harms of mammographic screening fro the Washington Pos t. A few years ago first mammograms were suggested at age 35, then it raised to 40 and now to 45 by this group. But the gynecologists have not recommended this to their patients. They have now published in JAMA: “A COG maintains its current advice that w...

The high risk kind of human papillomavirus (HPV) are associated with 90-100% of cervical cancers and over 90% of anal cancers. We know that testing the anal region may be as important as testing the cervix and the vagina, but who and when to test is a very complex subject, and this post won't cover everything you will need to gab with your own gyno about .  Guidelines can be found in many organizations on line, such as the US Preventative Task Force , or the ASCCP . a question that comes up frequently is what about the "field effect" (the urethra, the clitoris, the anus, as well as the cervix and vagina and vulva) of the disease? Do you need actual pap tests of areas other than the cervix? USPT guidelines do recommend anal pap tests for HIV men who have sex with men, and for HIV women with prior cervical caner. The anal pap smears often will not get cells (about 13% of the time accordin to Dr Lamme et al in Obstetrics and Gynecology), so it may have to be repeated.  ...

HPV Screening is a very complex subject, and this post won't cover everything you will need to gab with your own gyno about .  Guidelines can be found in many organizations on line, such as the US Preventative Task Force , or the ASCCP . a question that comes up frequently is what about the field effect of the disease? Do you need actual pap tests of areas other than the cervix? The vagina, the vulva, the anal area? How about HPV tests of these areas? HPV tests may be more sensitive in screening for disease that has spread, but we do not know this yet, much work needs to be done. Women will ask if they have not ever had anal sex is it possible to get anal HPV disease, and the answer is that yes, it seems to be possible because the disease affects the epithelium (surface) tissues of the entire area. When we do studies and pap test the cervix and the anal region about half the patients who do test positive for anal HPV and cervical HPV will have disease with the same time of HPV ...