What does a positive cervical test mean

Cervical examination is a scientific method of observing the cervix through a medical device microscope to see if there are any abnormalities. The reason for a positive cervical examination may be infection with the HPV virus, which causes cancers such as cervical cancer. However, most HPV bacteria will be cleared by the immune system before entering the patient's body. Only when our body's resistance decreases, we can easily cause various inflammations, so we need to exercise more in our daily life to improve our body's resistance.

A cervical smear is a procedure in which a small sample of cells is taken from the cervix of the uterus, placed on a glass slide, and then studied under a microscope to see if there are any abnormalities. Through a simple cervical smear, doctors can detect tiny, very early changes in cervical cells. It is currently the simplest and most effective diagnostic method for widespread cervical cancer screening.

A positive cervical smear test should refer to HPV positivity, which is an infection with human papillomavirus, a small part of which can cause cervical cancer. Once the human body is infected with this virus, the body will gradually, and a few patients will quickly develop immunity to the virus. When the immune system is strong enough, HPV will be eliminated.

The immune system of most women can eliminate HPV that enters the body. Only a few women with weaker immune functions are unable to eliminate HPV that enters the body, resulting in persistent HPV infection. However, this process takes about 8 to 12 years before it may develop into cervical cancer. There is no specific drug treatment for HPV. In fact, there is no treatment for the virus. Interferon and other drugs are all for improving immunity, not directly corresponding to the virus. HPV is easy to spread, but HPV is not equal to cancer. In particular, the presence of HPV antibodies in the blood only indicates that you have been infected with HPV. When HPV is found in secretions or exudates of the cervix, most people recover within one or two years.

What does a positive cervical smear test mean?

If the test finds that HPV is positive, then a colposcopy can be performed to take a small amount of tissue from the cervix for pathological examination to determine whether it is a precancerous lesion.

For moderate to severe precancerous lesions, surgery, namely cervical conization, should be performed to determine whether it is a more serious cervical carcinoma in situ, early invasive cervical cancer, or invasive cervical cancer, so that doctors can provide appropriate treatment.

If the Pap smear result shows "inflammation" but there are no symptoms, a return visit is not necessarily necessary. If the patient feels unwell, he or she must return for treatment. After the follow-up visit, the doctor will determine whether the patient actually has clinical symptoms of vaginitis and refer to the smear test results to decide whether drug treatment is needed. There is also a more vague and confusing abnormal smear report called "atypical cells." Usually, when pathologists are undecided between the terms "inflammatory cells" and "epithelial variant cells," they classify them as "atypical cells." Such patients can wait 6 months and then have another smear test.

However, more and more studies have found that, at the end of tracking, about 1/5 of patients whose cervical smear reports show "atypical cells" have "epithelial variant cells". Therefore, some scholars suggest that such patients may wish to undergo additional human papillomavirus screening to detect whether human papillomavirus exists in cervical epithelial cells, but this reference value in clinical practice is still not very certain.