Pregnancy is always a good news and is a totally new and exciting experience in a woman’s life. But this can turn to be a bit problematic if a pap smear is noticed. A pap test is a kind if screening which is mainly done by the doctors to see if there is any cervical cell abnormalities in the woman’s body or not.
This test is usually done to find out whether there is an abnormal pap while pregnant. During the time of the test the doctors take a sample of the surface cells on the cervix with the help of a small brush which is mainly used for cell collection. Then this cell sample is mainly sent to a special lab to get evaluated and then the results come out.
A few years back cervical cancer was a common issue among women but now it has been reduced a lot because women have become more aware and they go for a routine pap test now. The major cause behind this cervical cancer is the human papilloma virus which is also popularly known as HPV. There are few diagnosed HPV cases that gradually progress to cervical cancers but it can be prevented if they are found with early pap testing. There are also pre cancerous cervical changes that are caused by HPV and one can diagnose it with a regular pap testing.
The result of a pap test can vary from the range of normal to some mildly irregular cells and then it can also be abnormally high cell changes. But the abnormal cervical change will not progress only because one is pregnant. Also these present of HPV cells will have a negative effect on the pregnancy of a woman. When one is pregnant, an abnormal pap smear can be easily evaluated with the help of a colposcopy and if needed it can also need a biopsy. The colposcopy tries to magnify the cells present in the cervix and the vagina. If they are very much abnormal in a few areas then a biopsy is conducted. In case of biopsy a small piece of the abnormal area is removed and studied.
Just because pregnancy can increase the blood flow in the cervix area during the first trimester, going for a biopsy can also increase the risk of bleeding. But still the biopsy procedure is considered to be safe and it will not cause any complication when one is pregnant. In some cases there can be suspicious cellular changes and then cone biopsy is performed where a cone shaped piece of the cervix is removed. This is very much necessary to find out if cancer is present or not.
If there are minor cellular changes then it will normalise once the baby is born. Abnormal pap smear pregnant can be diagnosed with the help of tests and they can be followed till the baby s delivered. But it is also said that diagnosis of cervical cancer when one is pregnant is a very rare case.
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