You visited your gynecologist a few days ago for your annual Pap smear, the routine test used for detecting cervical cancer, and now you are congratulating yourself on the premise that no news is good news, when suddenly the phone rings and on the other end is your gynecologist. The laboratory has reported that your Pap smear shows a mild abnormality in cells lining the cervix. In many cases the mildly changed cells will revert to normal without treatment. If so, then millions of women could avoid colposcopy and biopsy each year. In 1997, it is estimated that in the United States 14,500 cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed and 4,800 cervical cancer deaths will occur.
Opinions differ on treating less serious abnormalities.
Since HSIL has a much higher chance of developing into cancer, there has been little controversy about how to treat it. Aggressive treatment with immediate colposcopy and biopsy of abnormal tissue is the agreed upon method of handling this type of lesion. But disagreement remains about how to treat the mild lesions. Conservative Management - repeating the Pap test every six months because most mild abnormalities return to normal without treatment. This is the method of follow up most commonly used in Canada and Europe.