Will HPV show up in a pap smear?
HPV will show up in a pap smear if the woman currently has the virus. HPV is very common and most sexually active women will find that they have actually been infected with it before. It does not show any symptoms and tends to disappear within 9 months. HPV clears itself up, so a woman may be infected with it, but if may have already cleared up before her next smear. It can be detected in a smear, and if there has been a query or definite low grade change in the cells and all previous smears have been normal, then the recommendation is a repeat smear in 12 months (in Australia). This is because these changes are most probably due to the HPV infection. They know that it will probably disappear by the next smear. Hence, a repeat smear in 12 months, with most women showing a normal pap smear at that time. HPV is linked to cervical cancer and cervical cancer takes 10-15 years to develop in most cases. So regular 2 yearly pap smears are designed to pick up any changes very early so that tre
