Hello Fifergirl and thanks for your post,

I am sorry to hear that your sister is worried about her smear result.

The cervical screening programme is all about preventing cervical cancer. The HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) is very common indeed with the majority of the population affected at some point in their life.

When a smear test is performed it is first tested for HPV and if this is present then the pathologist looks for abnormal cells. These are not usually cancer but changes in the cells and for cancer to develop may take many years. 

Your sister's smear result only showed that HPV was present but no abnormal cells. It can sometimes take a couple of years for your immunity to get on top of the HPV virus. It does help if she does not smoke as this can make it harder to clear the virus from your body.

If the sample did show abnormal cells then your sister would have been invited to a colposcopy clinic for the cervix to be looked at in more detail.

Your sister will continue to be monitored yearly until the HPV infection has cleared up. There is nothing that your sister can do to get rid of the HPV but hopefully when she goes back in a year she may well have cleared the virus from her body.

It would be extremely unlikely for cancer to develop in a year as there have been no abnormal cells that have been found in her sample and there would be nothing to remove.

If your sister continues to worry then do encourage her to talk it through with her GP.

If either you or your sister would find it helpful to ring and discuss any of this with one of the nurses on the helpline then you are both very welcome to do so. The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.

All the best,

Catherine