Re: Tests?

 " Doctors frequently tell women that if the PAP comes back positive that they have HPV infection. "


Really ? Got any "proof" of that ? My wife and daughter both had a positive pap and neither were told "HIV, HPV", or any other thing with Hv in it.

Where you gettin your info boy ?

I do a lot of consultations and have heard this so many times from women.  They are being scared in to further tests by being told they are infected with HPV and therefore are at high risk of cancer. All you have to do is a little research to confirm this. Here, let me help you out. From a Centers for Disease Control site:

http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/pap/default.htm

"Abnormal changes on your cervix are likely caused by HPV. The changes may be minor (low-grade) or serious (high-grade). Most of the time, minor changes go back to normal on their own. But more serious changes can turn into cancer if they are not removed. The more serious changes are often called “precancer” because they are not yet cancer, but they can turn into cancer over time. It is important to make sure these changes do not get worse."

"A positive HPV test means you do have an HPV type that may be linked to cervical cancer. This does not mean you have cervical cancer now. But it could be a warning."

Note that there is ABSOLUTELY NO mention of other causes of abnormal PAP smears!!! And they claim that a positive HPV test means you are infected with HPV. Again a total crock. This is an antibody test and antibody tests are notoriously inaccurate. The false positive rate on these tests are extremely high primarily due to, but not limited to, a problem known as serological cross reactivity. This simply means antibodies can cross react on antigen test targets. For example the HIV test has over 65 KNOWN causes for false positives.