I was just looking at the 'are you out to your doctor' thread (and no, I'm not)... and it raised a question that's been puzzling me for a while. If I've never had sex, at age 24, do I need pap tests??? I've never had one!
Don't quote me on this one, but I *think* those are used to see if you have something wrong in your vaginal flora. An inbalace can point to an infection. If you're a virgin, you can still have something wrong that is not sexual transmited. Sometimes being on antibiotics can cause inbalances in your vaginal flora. (an example) I don't know why you have/want to do the test. Best wait for Kara to enlight you better.
A Pap smear is a test for cervical cancer. The doctor inserts a small specimen collector called a curette into the vagina to scrape some surface cells from the cervix. It's painless although the speculum used to open the vagina for visualization is a little uncomfortable. The scraped sells are placed on a slide and sent to the lab. The lab checks for cancerous or pre-cancerous cells. The current guidelines are that a woman should have their first Pap smear by age 21 if they are sexually active and have not taken the HPV vaccine. The test should be repeated about every 2 years during your 20s. There are instances of cervical cancer that occur spontaneously however most cases are related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. Cervical cancer has a very good long-term survival rate if caught early. Cervical cancer becomes serious if it spreads to the rest of the reproductive system. In some cases, the abnormal cells caused by HPV go away on their own. In some cases, the physician may recommend freezing or lasering the cells (as is done with warts).
Thanks Kara! So are those guidelines saying that I don't need one til I start having sex (which could be never at the rate I'm going!!)? I did have that vaccine.
