Who Should You Ask About When To Get Your Next Pap Smear?

Cervical cancer detection is more than just a pap smear, it's getting regular pelvic examinations, following up episodes of bleeding or pain, and having a personal gyno to consult regarding how to lower your cancer risks. But, ultimately, most do rely on regular pap smear testing to determine their risk for cervical cancer. Pap smears are a sampling of the cervical cells to determine whether the cells are normal. As such pap tests don't treat cancer, they seek it, as in a simple screening test. Pap smear testing cannot detect all cancer, just most of it, yet who to test, and exactly how to test has been under debate as we try to further eliminate cervical cancer, but focus on safety and cost for American women. Many organizations have produced pap smear guidelines. American Cancer Society recommendations can be found at this link .The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology can be found at this link, where they discuss the guidelines that were put in place in 2012. Gynecologic Cancer Foundation. Under age 21: You probably don't yet need a pap. Under age 30: Get a regular pap ever 3 years, keep getting pelvic exams, and some physicians believe in beginning HPV testing over the age of 25. Over age thirty? Add a HPV test to your pap, or alternatively begin with an HPV test. Previous abnormal pap smears will change what your gyno recommends for pap test screening? You may have recurrence risk for over 20 years. We have told women that they need yearly pap smears for so many years that even though it's been a recommendation since 2003 to do fewer pap smears gynos often sticking to the every year pap. And you and your gyno know more about your risks, and the absolute costs and potential for harm the test would have in your case. Drs. Chelmow, Waxman, Cain and Lawrence writing a commentary on this topic in Obstetrics and Gynecology in April of 2012 have said that the 'yearly' plan was 'chosen arbitrarily.' It's hard for gynos to switch gears, and we didn't embrace the every other or every third year smears as a group. Now again we have extended the overall interval that pap smears are necessary, and it's all based on your age, and the next factor is your history of cervical disease and HPV disease. We know that Gardasil vaccination will affect this as well, but currently whether you have been vaccinated against HPV disease doesn't change when we recommend pap smear testing. Very specific factors in your case have to be discussed with your individual gyno. She may not have even had time to digest all the technical information in these guidelines. They are published on line for those who are interested in the details.
The NIH expresses their views on cervical cancer screening at the
New Pap Testing Recommendations March 2012 And the newest information, now that the health care law has gone into effect: Plans must cover HPV testing! So for women over the age of 30, even with a normal pap test, if you haven't had HPV testing, it is now covered by most plans, and will be covered by all plans with in the year. For more specific information regarding what the Affordable Health Care Act covers for women check their website.

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...

Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously. It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...

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