It’s not scary, painless, and extremely informative.

Early diagnosis of high-risk HPV for the development of cervical cancer

2023 turned out to be a year of struggle for an STD health Test. Though expensive and nerve-wracking, I thought well and realised that it was wonderful. I fell ill and had to undergo surgery (gynaecological cleansing; I had endometrial hyperplasia), and after that, medical professionals tested me to determine HPV variant 21 (the maximum possible number). My operating gynaecologist said checking for 30 main variants is advisable, but paid laboratories offer the 3 most common HPV oncogenic variants, which are 14 and 21. I chose 21 variants as the maximum possible number. They test for everything in indicator 21, which could be a combination of different indicators.

Well, in general, I read about the analysis and decided that I should take it because…

Highly oncogenic variants 16 and 18 cause cervical cancer in 70% of cases, vulvar and vaginal cancer in 80%, anal cancer in 92%, oral cancer in 95%, oropharyngeal cancer in 89%, and penile cancer in 63%. HPV genotypes 6 and 11 are responsible for almost all variants of anogenital warts and most cases of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis.

The full title of my analysis

Can I submit it for free? Maybe yes. This varies greatly from region to region. In our case, it seems that it’s not possible since I had the operation done under compulsory Medical insurance, and the medical staff told me that I needed to write a refusal to be tested for HPV. Because it’s paid, you don’t need it at all.” I asked about what was necessary or not at the post-operative consultation when I was able to think adequately)) She replied that, in general, it was very desirable, especially since I was a woman and I had a gynaecological problem. But in our city, there is only an STD fee. Well, OK. Paid as it is, it’s better to find out and treat than to “suddenly” get cancer due to an oncogenic variant of HPV.

Preparation is necessary for the analysis:

Women should take the STD test before menstruation or two days after its end and no earlier than 2 hours after urination. On the eve and the day of the examination, women should not douche the vagina, and on the day of the examination, they should not toilet the genitals.

Biomaterial collection should not occur earlier than 24-48 hours after sexual intercourse, intravaginal ultrasound, and colposcopy.

Perform a scraping from the urethra before or 2-3 hours after urination.

I set my alarm clock for 5:30, emptied my bladder and went back to sleep. By 8 am, I took my daughter to the garden and went to the STD laboratory; somewhere closer to 9, I took the exam.

Several Invitro laboratories were offered to me, but I chose the more convenient office to get to. The office itself could be better. It has a VERY tired renovation and a general feeling of desolation. Honestly, gynaecology under compulsory medical insurance looks better and is better equipped than an expensive laboratory. But I have to go, not checkers, so I don’t care. I didn’t take pictures inside because there’s not much space there, but there is a cooler, a wheelchair, and sofas. Those. The equipment is generally sufficient, from a funny shoe cover for visitors to a corporate colour, like a sign. There is a sofa in the “dressing room”. You can see it from the street and put on shoe covers there.

I went up to the counter, and the girl asked for my passport. And I found myself in the system and printed out two contracts, separately for blood from a vein for detection. I signed and was invited into the STD treatment room. A gynaecological chair is there; they offer “fabric” shoe covers for bare legs.

Collection Process

The collection process is standard. A smear to diagnose HPV is taken from the cervical canal in all women. However, if you choose this service directly on the laboratory website, they also offer a vagina. I don’t know what the difference is. Sber Health didn’t have any choice; it’s just that in the very name of the test, it says “vaginal scraping, cervical scraping, urethral scraping”, and the laboratory didn’t specify anything. Furthermore, they took it from its intended location, and that’s it)

You must sit in a gynaecological chair. The laboratory assistant will use a disposable speculum and a thin “tampon” on a long stick—like an ear stick, only five times longer. The procedure is painless, except for slight discomfort from inserting the speculum. The fence itself takes three seconds at most. You can get dressed.

Results and Follow-up

The laboratory assistant packed the tip of the wand with biomaterials into a plastic cone, they showed me a sticker with my name and asked me to put another signature that everything was correct. All. You can go home (I also went to donate blood from a vein to another office) and wait for the results. Ready for up to 3 days. I took the exam on Wednesday morning and received a message on Friday midnight that the results were ready. I don’t have paper kits yet; I need to print them out, but I can show screenshots from my account.

The decoding is very clear – I did not have any of the 21 variants I tested for. On the third sheet, there is a transcript. I only found “more than 4” unclear, but the explanation followed immediately.

If the “control of material collection” column contains a value of 4 Lg or more, adequate biological material was provided for the study.

This means everything is fine. “No STD detected,” probably because I’m healthy and not because there’s something wrong with the smear; it’s fine.

And what’s the result?

I am very pleased that I did not delay and saved money. I spent money, but I slept peacefully. In general, I didn’t even think that I was at risk for an STD, but it is easy to catch, almost impossible to cure, and it leads to a high risk of developing cancer. Here, I believe, forewarned is forearmed! Now, I’m going to inject myself with Gardasil; I’ve been wanting to for a long time, and now I know what I need. Since I don’t have HPV, we will increase the risk of not getting it in the future.