After a hysterectomy, does a woman still need to have annual pap smears?
If you have ever had abnormal Pap smears with dysplasia or HPV changes, I would say yes for about 5 years at least. Then if all of those Paps are negative you could have them every 3 years. If you’ve never had an abnormal Pap and you have had 3 recent annual Paps that are all negative, then you probably only need them about every 3 years starting now. Changes can take place at the end of the vagina (dysplasia, carcinoma in-situ or invasive cancer of the vagina) just as they can on the cervix. Admittedly it is much less frequent but does happen. The only time we see cancer of the vagina (squamous cell) is in women who had a hysterectomy and never got another Pap for many years.
