HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) causes nearly all cervical cancers. It’s a virus that is generally sexually transmitted and there are many different types of HPV. There are low risk and high risk types. We can now vaccinate against the high risk and some low risk types and in the UK Gardisil vaccination for HPV has been given to girls in high/secondary school for many years now.
Even if you have HPV for a while it is just a risk factor and doesn’t mean you will get cervical cancer but if you have HPV you need more frequent follow up.
We take the sample in the same way as the previous test because if we detect HPV we want to know if the cells are normal or abnormal at this point in time.
Those with HPV detected will be seen annually for either repeat sample or colposcopy depending on the strain of HPV and abnormal cells until the HPV has gone.
Our body will sometimes carry HPV for months or years but usually the immune system will eventually remove it.
If you don’t have HPV (or your body has got rid of it) then you don’t need a test for 5 years.
Why? Because once you contract HPV it takes an average of about 5-10 years to cause significant cell changes. So even if you contact HPV a week after your test, there is a good chance that in 5 years time you would only have minor cell changes. There are no guarantees in medicine and there may be a few exceptions, but this is a screening test and therefore needs to meet screening criteria.
The new screening has been shown to be considerably more effective at preventing cervical cancer than the method by which screening was done previously. If HPV is there the test is almost certain to pick it up. With the old test we had to wait for the cell changes to occur before we could detect a problem, so had to see people and test more often.
There are very rare exceptions where HPV is not the cause of cervical cancer and these cases will generally be picked up by presenting with symptoms as they were with the old screening. If you ever get bleeding between your periods, after sex or pelvic pain you should come see a doctor anyway even if you have had recent cervical screening.
Dr Psyche Bailey, GP Partner, St Johns Surgery
