Do I need a pap smear? Understanding Pap Smears, HPV, and Cervical Cancer Screening

Are you wondering whether you need to get a Pap smear or colposcopy? Are you wondering whether it's going to be painful or cause other harmful effects in your body? Well, if so, then you're in the right place. I'm very glad that you found this video. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson. I'm a naturopathic doctor as well as a professional midwife and a women's health expert. I've been helping women with abnormal Pap smears and high risk HPV virus for over 25 years. And so I'm really glad that you're looking for more information and I look forward to helping to break it down for you so that you feel informed about how to best take care of your body and how, what steps to take from here. So some important things to keep in mind is that these decisions are going to have to do with your age as well as your, your exposure risk and your past medical history. So we're going to talk that through so that you understand exactly, based on your particular situation, whether screening for cervical cancer is, makes sense at this moment in your life. So that's what we're really talking about here is risk of cervical cancer as well as other HPV related cancers. That includes vaginal cancer, vulvar cancer, anal cancer and others. The main one that we're thinking about is cervical cancer because that's what we're looking for with a Pap smear. At the same time though, it's important to again, understand your medical history to know if you had a hysterectomy, you still need to be screening for vaginal cancer. And if you, even if you're not sexually active at this time in your life, and even if you've only had one sexual partner, and even if you've only experienced genital contact without full intercourse, these are all important decisions to make because high risk HPV virus can cause cancer risk even with one partner, even with minimal genital contact, and even if it's been years since your last sexual activity. So this is important for women of all different ages who are potentially sexually active. I'm going to be talking through the standard guidelines for screening and I want you to know the latest information about alternatives to, to Pap smear that could be possible depending on your case and your scenario. I want to help make sure you understand all of the information because what I find is the more information you have about what's available and how to make these decisions, then the less stress and anxiety you're going to have and the more you're going to feel in control of your health. And that is so, so important when it comes to preventing cervical cancer and other HPV related cancers. So let's see, the first thing to really understand is what is a Pap smear, what is an HPV test and what is a colposcopy so that we're on the same page with what tests we're talking about. And Pap smear is when the practitioner uses a vaginal speculum which might be metal or might be plastic. And the speculum is used to essentially go in vaginally and hold the vaginal, vaginal tissue out of the way so that the cervix can be visualized. The Cervix is about 2 inches in to the vaginal area, straight in. And classically, I always say looks like a pink donut, a shiny pink donut. And you can search online, you'll find pictures of what does a cervix look like when has a hole in the middle because that's the endocervical canal that leads to the inside of the uterus. The cervix is the tip of the uterus, right? So the uterus is here and the cervix is the tip of it. That's inside the vagina. And we use a speculum to be able to see the cervix With a Pap smear. We're using usually a plastic spatula or could be some looks like a little brush to go right inside the opening of the cervix. And it's just to gently slough superficial cells from the face of the cervix and right inside the endocervical canal. We're not going all the way into the uterus. It's just right inside the opening of the cervix. That's where the High risk HPV cells 10 HPV virus tends to cause abnormal cells. So it's when you look at the supplies that your practitioner uses to do a Pap smear test, you will see that it's a simple plastic spatula and it's a little simple brush that's used to just take superficial cells and then be able to look at them under a microscope. So a pathologist looks at them under the microscope to look at the same shape of the cells, the shape of the nucleus of the cells. And by looking at the shape and size of the cells, the pathologist is able to determine whether high risk HPV virus is causing abnormalities in those cells. And those abnormalities are then Graded on a spectrum from any mild changes, even inflammation couldn't be seen under a microscope, to more moderate abnormalities to more severe abnormalities. And that's even before it turns into cancer cells. And that's why it's so amazing that we have access to a Pap smear to be able to look at these cells and identify pre cancer before it turns into cervical cancer. Because if we see that there are abnormal cells then we can address them, we can remove them. And, and what I do in my work is even help women to prevent the high risk HPV virus from causing abnormal cells. And so there's so much we can do to prevent cervical cancer. And that's why this is so important. That's why I would encourage you to know, hey, this is important testing so that if you are at risk of cervical cancer, we can catch it early, we can address it before it turns into cancer. So some of the stats on this is that of all the Pap smears that are done, about 3.8 to 5% of them will show abnormal cells. And that works out to be, let's see, that works out to be in the United states, that's about 13 to 14,000 women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer based on the Pap smear. Now there's much more also the numbers are much higher when you look at it worldwide. It's important to understand that the Pap smear is going to, can potentially identify abnormal cells. So I want you to get a sense of that because we're actually looking at the cells to see, to see are they abnormal. Now getting a Pap smear from decades back, that was our main thing we could do. But now we have more options in terms of ways we can assess for cervical cancer risk, including testing for actual high risk HPV virus. And now there's even more advanced testing available for HPV virus. In even if we look at 10 years ago, the testing was not near as advanced as it is now. And so there's tests that are called genotyping that can actually identify high risk HPV virus based on its genotype. It's DNA, it can identify it so specifically. And these tests can even quantify the amount of HPV virus that's present. Now we talk about HPV as if it's a single virus. And actually there's over 150 strains of HPV virus, but not all of them are associated with cancer risk. There's only 14 that we know of at this point in time that have been associated with risk of cancer. Those 14 are the ones that we're especially interested in testing for because we're trying to prevent cervical cancer and other HPV related cancers. So we want to test for the 14 hyper high risk types. They're called high risk types because they're associated with cancer risk. The low risk types are more associated with warts, like warts on your hands and feet or genital warts. Those are the low risk types. And so the testing for HPV doesn't usually test for low risk types, it tests for the high risk types. So this is really important to know because what you're going to find is when you go into a practitioner's office to get a Pap smear at this point in time, it's quite likely that they will also test for high risk HPV at the time of your Pap smear. And that's called a CO test, like CO test, because they're testing both for the Pap and for the high risk HPV at the same time. And that was not previously the case. But now I'm seeing most practitioners will test for HPV and a Pap at the same time. That is considered now the most accurate way to identify this because we know that 95 to 99%, so almost all cervical cancer is caused by those 14 types of HPV. So that's why practitioners started realizing and the guidelines started changing to say, hey, instead of just doing a Pap smear to look for abnormal cells, why don't we test for the virus? Because if the virus is positive, then we know this person's already at risk for cervical cancer and we're going to want to be more proactive. I think that's a good idea. I would rather know you have a high risk hpv, so then I can help you address it. If we don't know, then you're at risk and not even knowing. Because there are no symptoms associated with high risk hpv. There's no warts, there's no pain, there's no discharge. Most women have no idea that they have high risk HPV virus. In fact, that means that when you go in for a Pap and HPV test and it comes back positive, most women feel really shocked and surprised because there is no symptoms. You would have had no idea that you were positive. Although what the statistics show is that about 12% of women worldwide are testing positive for high risk HPV virus at any point in time. 12%. Now, this can vary based on where you live and your age. But and what the other statistics show is that 80% of us will test positive at some point in our lives, right? So at any point in time, 12% of women have it. But in a, in a person's lifetime, especially by age 50, 80% of us will have tested positive for HPV. So it's actually quite common to be exposed to and test positive for high risk HPV virus. And that's even not even with everyone being tested. Imagine if everyone was tested, I think it would, we would see that it's even more common than that. So this is actually not a rare occurrence. Testing positive or high risk HPV is quite common. Again, even if you only have one or few sexual partners, it can still happen. And even, even if you're depending on your age, there's a bit higher prevalence in women who are under 30 years old. That's almost half of the cases is under 30 years old. @ the same time though, it also, there is risk of cervical cancer in women over 65, that even 20% of women who have cervical cancer are over age 65. So don't be fooled that this is only in younger women. This can happen in women over 30 and it can even happen in women over 65. So I would say to me it's really important to, to not really, no matter your age, if, if you, if you've been sexually active at any point in your life, then we need to start thinking about were you exposed to high risk hpv, are you testing positive? And if so, let's help your body protect you from it before it has a chance to cause abnormal cells or cervical cancer. And if it has already caused abnormal cells or cervical cancer, then let's make sure to prevent it from happening again. This means that some of the research shows that in 2018 there was an estimated 37 million women who tested positive for high risk HPV virus and that over 666,000 were diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide in 2022. This starts to give you a sense of the numbers and the potential for prevention if, if only women, more women knew they had high risk hpv and if only women knew they could do something to protect themselves from high risk hpv. And that's why I want you to know, because otherwise it can be quite scary to find out that you are testing positive for a virus that could cause cancer. I want you to know that there's a lot I can do to help you. I've been again helping Women for over 25 years to successfully clear HPV to negative and prevent abnormal cells and prevent cervical cancer. And so if you're in this situation testing positive and scrambling to figure out what to do, please contact me in my office and the practitioners who've been trained by me with my HPV protocol to help you protect yourself from high risk HPV virus. You can find out more@doctordhani.com, just-o c t-o R-O-N-I.com or clearhpvnow.com and I will put links down below where you can join me for free classes, free workshop so you can learn more what I'm talking about and learn more what's possible to protect yourself from high risk HPV virus. Okay, so now that you have a sense of the statistics and you understand what the Pap smear test is, and you understand what the HPV test is, then we want to talk about the colposcopy test. A colposcopy is a biopsy and that means that we're getting a very much closer look at the cells. So it means that you go into the practitioner, they use a speculum again, they visualize the cervix and they can use speculative specific visualization techniques to be able to see more clearly where there may be abnormal cells on the cervix and then take a biopsy in exactly those areas. Whereas with a Pap smear is a general sample of the cells. Right. We don't know where or if there might be any abnormalities. With a biopsy, we can know more specifically, we should check a specific area and take a tissue sample. And, and that tissue sample could be on the face of the cervix or right inside the opening of the cervix. And sometimes a doctor might take multiple samples with a colposcopy. And so this is a biopsy of the cells. It's usually only done if the Pap smear showed some abnormality. Right. So you wouldn't just go straight to a colposcopy, you would first test, do a Pap, an HPV test. And if you see, if your doctor sees, oh, there's already looks like there may be abnormal cells and high risk hpv, that's when your practitioner might be recommending to do a biopsy so they can take a closer look and confirm whether there are abnormal cells and the severity of those abnormal cells. Remember, it's going to be on a spectrum from what might be called low grade to high grade, or the more modern terminology is to say either ascus, which is an inflammation type, atypical cells, CIN1, CIN2, CIN3. So going from CIN1 is low grade to CIN2 and CIN3 which are high grade cells, which are before it turns into carcinoma in situ or carcinoma which is pretty pre cancer and cancer cells. Okay. So the biopsy can get much more specific detail on exactly where on that spectrum the cells are. And the reason why that's so important is because it determines the treatment. So currently in the United States, if the cells are showing CIN2 or CIN3, then that indicates a need for a procedure to remove those abnormal cells. If it's asc is or CIN1, those cells could can resolve on their own. And I can tell you more about how I help women resolve those cells. If it's CIN 2 or 3, it goes is now into a high grade category and we need to take more action to remove those abnormal cells. You're going to want to connect with your practitioner to see what they recommend for you or you can learn more from me and my videos on what the options are. Including there is a natural alternative approach to CIN2.3 called Escarada treatments which might be an option for you. You can contact us and we can tell you more about it and determine whether you may be a candidate for escarada treatments versus LEEP or cold knife or conization procedure from your gynecologist. And if it has progressed into carcinoma in situ or carcinoma, you're going to need to meet with an oncologist to talk about cancer treatment. And at the same time, what I always recommend is to know that it's really two parts here. We need to address any severely abnormal cells and we need to address the high risk HPV virus. And that's what's often missing in standard medical offices. So I'm here to tell you there's a lot in the research and clinically that have been proven to help your body clear HPV to negative. The human body can clear high risk HPV virus out of the body. Completely well established in the research that that's possible. In fact, most women will clear high risk HPV virus to negative on their own without any help. The key is we want to see, we want to help the women whose bodies are not clearing it on, on their own because we want to help you to clear it so that it doesn't have a chance to cause abnormal cells or cancer. I'm hoping this is all making sense. Right. So you get a sense of. That's why these are the reasons why we want to know if you're testing positive for high risk hpv. Why we would want to potentially do a Pap smear? Why would we would potentially do a colposcopy? Because we want to weigh out test identifying cancer risk early so we can address it before it turns into cancer. Now, if you were looking for this video, you might have been wondering, well, are there any risks of doing a Pap smear? Are there any risks of doing a colposcopy? What do I need to, you know, is this going to be painful? Is this going to be causing issues? And it is always, I always say it's always important to understand both sides of anything we do to our bodies or put in our bodies or swallow. Good to weigh out the risks and benefits to decide. So I'm glad you're asking these questions. Now with that, there is a study and I can put a link to this study in the notes below in case you'd like to refer to it. There's very little research on harms associated with these different procedures. But there is a study that I can reference from 2017 that does give us some insights. And I find that it's consistent with what I hear women reporting back to me because again, I'm talking to thousands of women every year. And so I hear from women all the time of what they're experiencing in the gynecology office and with these different procedures with the Pap smear, there is a smaller chance that you might experience some symptoms from having a Pap smear. The thing is that because you're inserting a speculum vaginally, there can be pressure. Now, a speculum has generally smooth edges. It's not sharp. There's no injection needed with a Pap smear or anything like that. No needles involved. And as I said, it's using a plastic speculum with rounded edges. So the likelihood of any kind of harmful effect is quite low. Although because we are sloughing off cells on the, on the cervix and using a little brush inside the opening of the canal, sometimes it can cause little tiny bit of spotting. So that would be the most common symptoms from a Pap smear might be the discomfort from having a speculum in while the practitioner is doing the Pap smear and then potentially a little bit of spotting within a few days to a week afterwards, simply because of just taking the sample from the cervix. Very low likelihood of symptoms from then on. Although I always like to really acknowledge for women that if this is something new for you, right. You're going into the practitioner's office, whether it's a gynecologist or you can, you can go to a midwife or other practice. Sometimes that's a GP doing a Pap smear. I done many, many Pap smears in my years in practice and, and so what I always recommend is, you know, to know that you want to go in and try to be as relaxed as possible. I'm going to give you some tips here in a minute on how to get through Pap smear or gynecolog exam with, you know, with the least negative effects as possible. I'm going to come back to that. So with the Pap smear, it's likely you're going to be. It's not going to take very long and it might be a bit uncomfortable, but it should, shouldn't have lasting effects. Now, with a biopsy, because there are going to be taking a sample of tissue from your cervix, there's more likelihood of some pain and some cramping at the time of the biopsy. There can also be some bleeding. It could even change your menstrual cycle a little bit. Like you might get your period early or late the next month. Sometimes there's a little bit of discharge that can occur and so it's more likely it's. The research is showing between 50 to 80% of women after a biopsy will have some pain, bleeding or discharge happening afterwards. And then if you have a treatment, let's say like a LEEP procedure or conization, then there's also a higher percentage that you're going to experience some pain, bleeding and or discharge. Between 67 and 77% of women will have some pain and bleeding. So that is something to know going into it. You'll have the speculum discomfort, then you're going to have likely some pain and cramping, like more severe usually than menstrual cramping. And that could last for days to weeks after. And usually practitioners will recommend four to six weeks of nothing vaginally, like no social intercourse and no suppositories. Four to six weeks after a LEEP procedure. So it's to say, you know, that's common for women to experience that when you go in, which is also why, wow, I would rather catch this early, right? I would rather find out that you're testing positive or high risk HPV and help you to clear it out of there before it has a chance to cause abnormal cells so that you can avoid these procedures and avoid the pain that can come with them. I know how scary it is to test positive for HPV virus. And I know it's even more concerning when your gynecologist tells you that all you can do is wait and see if it continues and if it causes abnormal cells. That's exactly why as a naturopathic doctor and midwife that I feel so passionate about helping women to be proactive about protecting themselves from HPV virus. I've been helping thousands of women for the past 23 years to do exactly that and to keep get HPV to negative and stay negative. And that's why I developed the say Goodbye to HPV online program where you can get access to my proven protocol from wherever you are in the world. So I hope you will come check out the say Goodbye to HPV program, review the success cases and see if this is going to be a good fit to help you get your life back from hpv. And if you've already been through these, you might. And it really varies. Some women will say they did a colposcopy and they didn't experience pain. And some women felt like it was the worst pain of their life and they never want to go through it again. So I'm saying this to try to just be as open and authentic as possible so you really know that it's going to be unique to your experience. And there's ways I'm going to teach you that you can help to minimize the symptoms of it. And the most important thing is to know, hey, let's test and identify any abnormality sooner. So you're less likely to need to go through these procedures and especially less likely to have to go through recurrent. Because what can happen is for a lot of women, they test positive for high risk HPV and then the doctor says come back in six months or 12 months and then they have to do another Pap, an HPV test and then if, if it shows abnormal cells, then they have to do a colposcopy biopsy and then you might have to repeat that every six months. And there's women who've been repeating biopsies every six months for years. And to me that's where we need to be intervening and saying, wait a minute, what can we do to help stop this virus from being present and causing abnormal cells? So women can not need to, to have recurrent biopsies. That's absolutely preventable in my clinical experience. So if that's your situation, please reach out for help because I would love to help you to solve that and get on with your Life and not have to be in having these biopsies over and over and over again. And so I hope that gives you a better sense of like, okay, yes, that. But that's also why for a lot of women, it's scary to think of going to the doctor's office. So I want you to have the guidelines so that you can say, okay, because there is going to be anxiety. In fact, the research shows that they reported 35% of women had anxiety for at least 12 weeks after getting abnormal test results. From my experience, it's way higher than that. Because when I talk to women, first of all, you can have anxiety before even getting an abnormal. And definitely when you get an abnormal result, I believe it's higher than 35% of women have anxiety. And it's, I believe, longer than 12 weeks. But this is what this study reported. So please know that anxiety about going through this process is very common. And we need to be supporting women. That's my opinion. We need to be supporting women through this so that the anxiety is not paralyzing and that you can stay focused on the reason why you're doing this and to know that you can have help to deal with it. You're not. You don't have to be on your own and definitely don't have to feel ashamed. This is a normal part of our bodies and this is a very common thing that women go through. And there's a lot we can do to support you through it. But you're probably not going to hear about that in the standard medical office, because in. In the standard medical office, their training is in doing the procedures and in doing surgeries. But they don't have so much training in how to help you clear the virus once you have it or how to prevent this situation from going on for long periods of time. Let's see. So the general. At this point in time, this is 2025, almost 2026. The cancer cervical cancer screening guidelines are from age 21 to 29, it's recommended to do a pap test every three years. So that means if you do a Pap and it's negative, you should Repeat it every three years between age 21 and 29, from age 30 to 65. Then it also would be a Pap. You could do a Pap test every three years. You could continue on that same pattern Pap every three years, or you can if you add the HPV test. So if you go into the doctor's office and they not only just do a Pap, but they also Do a high risk HPV test and it's negative, then you only have to repeat every five years. So if you've been normal, no negative test results, you would Repeat it every five years between age 30 and 65. Now, I'm going to tell you about some a new option in this category from age 30 to 65. And even some sources indicate that this might be able to even be used by women even at, by age 25. But the standard guidelines are from age 30 to 65, there's now a new option which is a home home test for high risk HPV virus. And so what this is is you can order the test online. There's a couple companies that are offering it. I'll put links down below in the notes. There's one company called My Lab Box and there's another company called Teal T E A L which even will, if you're in the United States, potentially be able to bill insurance for you for this test. So you go online, they can, you can order the test, they send you a swab, you do this vaginal swab, right? You do use the swab vaginally yourself. You don't have to have a vaginal speculum or anything like that. You don't have to go to the doctor's office. You just do a vaginal swab and you send it in. And this test is depending on whether your insurance is helping you pay for it. This is likely under $300. So you just have to check out what the possibilities are for your case and your location. So you can do this HPV test from home with a swab, get the test results back within a couple of weeks, find out if you're testing positive for any of those 14 high risk types, the 16, 18 and the other 12 high risk types, and it's considered accurate. And if you do this high risk HPV test from home between age 30 and 65 and it's negative, then you would only have to repeat it every five years and you wouldn't have to do a Pap smear unless it comes back positive. Okay, so that's if some of you are like, wow, I'd rather not have to go in for Pap smear. That's your way to not have to do a Pap smear is if you have had normal PAPs and negative HPV, then you can do this home test for HPV every five years to make sure it's staying negative. However, if at any point you have had an irregular exam, abnormal cells, or if you taking an immunosuppressive medication, whether that's prednisone or any other immunosuppressive medication, or if you've had uterine bleeding, bleed, like abnormal bleeding besides a menstrual bleeding, or if you've had a hysterectomy, then you have to go in to have the doctor do the Pap and HPV test in the office. Okay, so this, right now, it's considered this. Home HPV testing is for someone who has a healthy history and none of those things that I just mentioned. Then you could do the home HPV test and if it's negative, you don't have to go in and do a Pap smear. If it shows any positive, then you're going to want to go in and get the Pap smear because now you know you have high risk HPV virus. You go into the clinic to get the Pap because you want to know are there any abnormal cells? If there are any abnormal cells on the Pap, then you talk to your doctor about doing a colposcopy or biopsy to identify exactly how severe are those abnormal cells you see. So it's flipped around. Before, the Pap smear was the first thing we did. Now it's becoming testing for high risk HPV is the first thing we do. In fact, when you go to the gynecology office, some practitioners are only testing for high risk HPV before doing a Pap smear. And I think we're going to see this more and more because again, not almost 99% of cervical cancer is caused by HPV. So if the virus is not present, very unlikely that you're going to get cancer. So we start with testing for high risk HPV virus. And so this is especially if you're over age 25, I'm seeing that the tests are approved for that, but the guidelines are still over age 30 to 65, you could do the home testing for high risk HPV virus. If you're over age 65, the screening becomes less required. However, I'm still very cautious because again, about 20% of cervical cancer is diagnosed in women over 65. So I don't know about you, but I would still want to know. So, and especially if you have a new sexual partner over age 65, which a lot of women do, if you have also a co infection with hiv, if you're taking an immunosuppressive medication and if you've ever tested positive for high risk HPV earlier in your life, then you're going to want to Keep on screening after age 65. So now if everything's been fine and negative for over 10 years, likely your doctor will say, okay, it's been 10 years. Over 65, your, your risk is very low. But still, I would be very cautious, especially if you have a new sexual partner and potential exposure to high risk hpv. And if, and if you're concerned at all, then better to just keep monitoring because it's much better to identify this and then be able to address it. I've helped many women over age 65 to clear high risk HPV to negative. And so I wouldn't want you to miss that opportunity to protect yourself from cervical cancer even if you're over age 65. Okay, so I hope that's all making sense. Let's see, I want to come back to how to, what to do because I even just spoke to a woman today who was, she's, she had an abnormal Pap smear and biopsy over, let's see, over four years ago. And she had so much pain from doing the colposcopy that she's been afraid to go back and be reevaluated. And so it can be a really difficult, I know it can be quite traumatic from going through doctor's appointments and these exams. And yet at the same time, we don't want it to progress to cervical cancer without you knowing it, because we'd rather know and help you with it. Please know that there are practitioners like me who are here to be supportive and help you through this and to do it in a way where we don't have to add to the trauma of medical visits and pelvic health exams. So what I recommend, if you have had a history of trauma with getting Pap smears or colposcopies, then I recommend to look in your area for either a naturopathic doctor, because as naturopathic doctors, we are trained to offer Pap smears. It depends on the state you live in. So certain states, naturopathic doctors can offer a Pap smear. In certain states they cannot. So depending on where you're located, you're going to find out whether a naturopathic doctor is licensed to offer Pap smears and, well, women exams. If so, I recommend going to a naturopathic doctor because a naturopathic doctor is way more likely to be, be able to guide you in a very gentle way and help you through the process of getting an HPV test and Pap smear without so much stress and discomfort. Okay. The other option is a midwife and Midwives also train to do Pap smears and are licensed to do Pap smears in most states. And most times women only think of Pap smear or a midwife when they're pregnant. But the thing is, midwives in most states can help women even when you're not pregnant. So it doesn't matter your age. So if what I would do is look in your local area for a midwife, it could be a certified professional midwife or a nurse midwife. But look for midwives in your local area and call and ask if they can do a Pap smear for you. Whether you're in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, 50s, 60s, quite likely a midwife is going to be able to see you and help you with a Pap smear. And the reason I recommend that is again, because midwives tend to take more time with their patients and if you, and you're likely to feel more comfortable saying to them, hey, I've, I've had difficult time in the past with these exams, but I know I need to get it done. They're more likely to be supportive and help talk you through it and support you through the process. And both naturopathic doctors and midwives are more likely to have training to know that it's possible to help prevent HPV from causing cervical cancer. So you're going to feel much more supported in that environment. And if it is abnormal and if you do need a biopsy or procedure, then they're more likely to know of more holistic gynecologists in the area to refer you to. That's another option is you could look for a holistic or functional gynecologist who again is going to be more open minded and more supportive of the care. So, and I would definitely say if you've been to a practitioner before and you didn't have a good experience, you felt uncomfortable, you felt afraid, you felt like you didn't feel comfortable going back to them. Don't let that deter you from getting your health care. You can go to another provider. So if you didn't have a good experience, I want to give you permission to choose a new provider, even if that means to go to a community clinic. Oftentimes there are community clinics where they offer Pap smears to women and HPV tests to women at very low cost. Even if you don't have insurance, you can get a very low cost HPV and Pap smear in a community clinic where you can just walk in, get it done and not have to feel all of the expectation and pressure from a practitioner's office that maybe if you had been in the past and they were, they were, and you felt uncomfortable, then my rule is always just choose a new practitioner because it's more important for you to get the testing that we need in order to know what's going on for you than it is for you to go back to the same practitioner. We can get new information and we can see what's going on and then we can guide you from there. And what I recommend to do is when you're going in for a guidance exam is to prepare yourself ahead of time. So try to set aside the day so that you can be not rushing in there, right? So that you can have a calm day, a calm start to the day. Be able to eat, make sure you get some protein and hydration so that you're not low in blood sugar. So you're like, your blood sugar is good, you're hydrated. And. And then I always recommend bringing like a headset, even if it's headsets for your phone, so that you can be listening to a meditation, calming music, something that you know you're going to be able to listen to while you're in the office so that you're not so likely to be distracted by all the different things going on in the clinic. And you'll be able to create calmness in your nervous system during the process. You can also use deep breathing. You can use. You can take something that's calming to your nervous system, for example, magnesium, theanine, gaba. Those are some of my favorite natural ways to calm the nervous system. And maybe you have already on hand some of your favorites to calm your nervous system. Take deep breaths, listen to calming music, and know for yourself that this is something you're doing for yourself, right? You're choosing to go in and get this test done so that you can know, is HPV positive? Are there abnormal cells? If so, then you're going to have a plan. You're going to then be able to contact me, contact my office, because I help women around the world, no matter where you're located. If you send me your test results and you say, hey, Dr. Donnie, it's showing HPV positive, it's showing these abnormal cells, then you can set up a time to talk to someone in my office or with me directly, and we're going to make a plan for you to be able to address it. And I think that's a huge piece of it. A lot of times the stress and Anxiety comes from not knowing, feeling like, what are you going to do? You have no one to help, the doctor's not giving you any information, then we're, of course we're going to be more anxious and concerned. But if you know, hey, I'm doing this because I need the information and you know that you're going to be able to contact me if there is an issue, if it is positive, then you're going to, I think, feel much more comfortable going in there and saying, I'm going to help support myself through it. I'm going to get the information I need. Ask your provider for a copy of your test results. They don't always, they always will say, oh, will let you know if there's an abnormal. And I don't believe that's the way it should be. I believe that all women deserve to receive their HPV and Pap results as soon as they come back. Because I want you to have that information in your hands and then I help you to understand what those results mean. So then you know what your next step should be. So say to your provider when you go in for your exam, say, I, please send me my test results, the actual report posted in the portal, or as soon as you know it's back, you may have to go back into the office and sign a release form and that says that you want to receive your HPV results, your Pap results. If you get a colposcopy, ask for those results. I want you to have them saved and in a folder on your computer or under your desk so that you have that information for yourself. Having your information is part of being your own best health advocate. And then you know for yourself, what year did you have the test done? Was it ever positive? So that you can make decisions going forward, right? Then you'll know in 10 years from now or 20 years from now, was it ever positive? Was it ever abnormal? If so, how did you address it? And you can keep track of this for yourself. It's really important because I see too often women who, let's say during the pandemic, what was really common is a lot of women, the doctors canceled their Pap smears and their, their tests during the pandemic. Even over three to five years period of time, many women were not getting Pap smears and many women were not getting HPV tests. And then when finally things opened back up after the pandemic was calming down and women went in to get exams, many women at that point found out they were testing positive and, or that the cells had progressed during the pandemic and they wish they would have known earlier because it's a lot easier to address when it's more mild. So let, it's not that it's impossible. So if you have abnormal cells and they're more severe, reach out to me as well. I've worked with very severe cases and women who've been dealing with HPV for, for over a decade. So I'm confident that I will be able to guide you. Reach out to me. I'm just saying, hey, let's find out sooner the better and let's support you through the process. Because what we also know from the research is that the more we support women through the process of getting these tests done and the more we support women once they, if they find out that they have positive HPV or abnormal cells, the more we support women through it, the more it lowers their risk of cervical cancer. So we must, must, must be supporting women through the, this whole process from the beginning of testing for hpv. Do you need a Pap smear? Do you need a colposcopy? If there's an abnormal, what are your treatment options? Let's help you through it because that in itself is going to help you to prevent cervical cancer and other HPV related cancer. So please accept that offer for help and to know whether it's me or someone else in your community, you are worth getting help. You deserve help. Absolutely. You are not alone. This is very common situation and so I hope this has helped answer your questions about Pap smears and so on. Again, it's going to be somewhat based on your age, is going to be somewhat based on your past history if you've ever had an abnormal and it's going to be based on, you know, a little more factors in your health history. But the thing I'm hoping you heard from this session is that there is help. It doesn't have to be traumatic if we can support you through it. And there is now a current alternative to going into the doctor's office for Pap smear because if you're between age 30 and 65, you can do a home high risk HPV test with a swab. If you've had a normal negative history, you can do that. We also use that once women are in my program, it's called the say goodbye to HPV group program or when they're working with me one on one. Once we start in with the protocol which is using the diet changes, lifestyle changes, supplements like nutrients, herbs at clinical doses, VAGINAL suppositories, microbiome balancing gut healing hormone balancing nutrient optimization. We dig in deep because the fact is is that when HPV virus is persistent and sticking around and causing abnormal cells, there's a reason your body should be able to clear it. So what I do is I help you to be a detective and figure out why is it not clearing it. Let's figure that out. Let's make sure we get the right test, the right blood tests, hormone levels, gut health, microbiome. Let's figure out what it is that your body needs help with so then your body can clear high risk HPV virus. And so that's what I do. And as we're in that process, as women are implementing my, it's called the Dr. Donnie's HPV Protocol. Whether they're working with me in a group or in one on one experience, as we go through that process, we can then also use a home HPV test to find out if the HPV is now negative. We will also use those home test kits to give us a sense of are we successful clearing the high risk HPV virus. Once we see that we've cleared as a negative, then I also recommend within 6 months doing a follow up with the gynecology office to make sure that it also shows negative at the doctor's office. Once we see two negatives, that's really high reassurance that it's going, it's gone and it's going to stay gone because then you'll know how to take care of yourself, how to make sure that HPV virus doesn't come back again. And it doesn't have to be avoiding sex by the way. I find that that has nothing to do with it. Women can still be having being sexually active even if you're re exposed to the virus. We can teach your immune system and your body to protect you from high risk HPV virus. So it's not about just using a condom and avoiding sex. It's about helping your body protect you even if you're re exposed to high risk HPV virus. And we do that by really getting down to the root causes of why your body wasn't protecting you in the first place. Remember, human body can protect us from high risk HPV virus. We just need to know what's there so we can take action steps to make sure your body knows how to protect you. And they're absolutely possible using the Dr. Donnie's HPV protocol. So if you'd like to learn more then just find a link down below. Or join me over@doctorzondi.com I look forward to connecting with you soon. There's also my HPV Recovery Guide, which is a free PDF. I'll put the link down below. You can grab that and learn more and see all the success cases of women who've been through this process and found freedom from high risk HPV so that you can have hope that that's possible for you too. And I look forward to connecting with you and helping you if that's the case. If you if this is resonating with you, then please feel free to reach out and I look forward to supporting you. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to How Humans Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review. And for more resources, visit.