Could I have human papillomavirus (HPV) even if my Pap test was normal?
Although the Pap test is vital, it won't always identify human papillomavirus (HPV). In this video, HPV expert Diane Harper, MD, explains how an HPV test can detect infection before a Pap smear can.
Transcript
The HPV test will be able to pick up that HPV infection in those normal cells. And your doctor will just ask you
to come back yearly to check to see what that HPV infection is doing. [MUSIC PLAYING]
The pap test shows us changes within the cell that HPV has caused. But it doesn't tell us if you have an HPV infection.
What the HPV test allows us to do is to find that HPV that's sitting in your cell
before it causes any changes that we could find on the pap smear.
So you could very well have a normal pap smear, normal cells that do have HPV inside of them but the HPV isn't causing
them any damage at this point. The HPV test will be able to pick up
that HPV infection in those normal cells and your doctor will just ask you to come back yearly to check
to see what that HPV infection is doing just to make sure that it is going to be one of those that does go away
and doesn't stick around to cause a cancer. [MUSIC PLAYING]
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