Pap smears and HPV tests can catch issues early—long before they become cancer. Learn why these simple screenings matter and how to make the experience more comfortable.

Many of us would choose the pain of a dentist’s chair over the most compassionate and sensitive gynecologist’s examination table. You endure a cold speculum — which is torture enough — then it does ...

If you get a call from your doctor’s office about an abnormal pap smear, you might start to freak out. Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones says it’s a good idea to take a deep breath first. Many times, the doctor ...

No, ovarian cysts can’t typically cause abnormal Pap smears. The most common cause of an abnormal Pap smear is infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can lead to changes in the cervical ...

J Low Genit Tract Dis. 2014;18(1):1-7. In a clinical setting, this combination of maintained sensitivity with increased specificity would lead to fewer office visits and procedures. Our cost analysis ...

Cervical cancer screening is one of the best success stories in health care. Since the 1970s, the death rate from cervical cancer has dropped by more than half. "The goal of the screening is to detect ...

It is possible to have an abnormal smear but a normal colposcopy result. This can happen when someone has a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection but no precancerous mutations in the cervix. Cervical ...

If you can’t remember when you had your last pap smear, there’s a chance you might be due for another. So how often should you get a pap smear, exactly? We asked Dr. Margo Harrison, MD, OBGYN and Head ...

If you have endometriosis and receive an abnormal result after your Pap smear, you may be wondering if your endo is the underlying cause. Pap smears detect abnormal cells in your cervix. After your ...

When they said not to wait for your first pap smear, they were not kidding. I got my first pap smear at 23, two years later than I should have. A month later, I learned my test result was abnormal. A ...