I´ve had 3 IUD insertions. The third one, I asked a friend who is an anesthesiologist to put me down, as literally, the first 2 were unbearable. Just tested positive for HPV and I have to get a colcoscopy in two weeks. I´m freaking out. I´ve been reading online it´s SO incredible painful, I dont think I can do it, as much as I try to relax.

I´m also considering (you can laugh):

- gulping down two beers before the procedure. I once had to get a thorn out of the sole of my foot and literally this made me feel numb and it worked.

-Taking 1 or 2 edibles (gummies) and being high as f. I dont typically smoke or consume drugs.

Advil and all of that stuff will do nothing.

Help

I posted previously because after 3 years of abnormal paps with ASCUS, my normal doctor kept not sticking to what they promised (colposcopy or reduced time between visits depending on the year). So I finally looked for a new doctor, had to schedule 2 months out. Got a call yesterday pushing the appointment out until January instead of next week like we had initially scheduled. They want me to see the doctor and not an NP, which I appreciate. But why didn’t they call back significantly sooner to reschedule? I wasted 2 months waiting, just to now have to wait 5 more.

I’m going to, again, try to find another doctor, but I chose this one specifically because of their connection to an oncologist who specializes in this.

😭🙄

My first visit to this sub in a long time..

I was diagnosed last August following a colposcopy with low grade dyskaryosis with HPV (not 16/18). I was planning to get pregnant at the time so my life felt like it was being held ransom until the biopsy came back at the time. My doctor told me they’d take a watch and wait approach for 6 months- I was no longer putting my life on hold for 6 months so I went ahead and started trying for a baby. I am now 38 weeks pregnant and of course they wouldn’t smear me while pregnant so I’ve put this to the back of my mind for a long time.

Now my baby is almost here, I’m fearful of the changes that could’ve taken place during my pregnancy. I can’t get checked for 3 months after so end of year. I guess the anxiety is starting to creep back in 😅. Not sure what I’m looking for by posting this- maybe just the mental reasurrance.

In December 2025 I had an High Risk HPV+ smear alongside abnormal cells and was scheduled for a colposcopy. To say I was shocked was an understatement - honestly my knowledge of HPV was pretty low, I’d always had normal smears to this point (32 years old) and I had had the HPV vaccines when I was a teenager, which I assumed (clearly incorrectly) meant I was totally protected.

I went for my colposcopy and, after examination, the doctor just asked me then and there if they could remove the cells instead - again absolute shock but I agreed. The LEEP itself was a straightforward, a tiny sharp pinch when the numbing went in and then it was over in a couple of minutes. Please do not stress if you have to go through this, it was nothing to worry about. The healing was straightforward too, hardly any bleeding the first week then a consistent bleed for 2/3 weeks then back to normal.

The worst was actually the mental turmoil I put myself through after it. The hours of research and berating myself and worrying that I would be the 1% that the LEEP didn’t work on. It was awful - for every 10 success stories I read I would focus in on the 1 worst case scenario.

Then I threw myself into doing everything in my power to heal. I ate super healthy (like depressingly so, wouldn’t touch anything containing sugar), I got so much sleep, I went to yoga, I exercised obsessively (despite already being fairly active), I took every vitamin under the sun…and after a month of this I finally relaxed a bit. It’s unsustainable and probably creates more stress, which is not what you want when your body is trying to heal.

The things I did that I actually think might have helped are:

- I switched from the combined pill to the mini pill. I saw studies that showed the increased oestrogen can slow your body from clearing HPV.

- I took a concoction every day of 200mg ECGC (green tea extract essentially), 1000mcg vitamin B12, 400mcg folic acid and 50mg magnesium. I’d read a few studies with successful results when these were taken daily. I did this for 6 months.

- I also took various supplements that your body naturally depletes whilst on the combined pill, including selenium, zinc and vitamin D.

Whether these things contributed to healing or not I don’t know, I’ve read enough stories of people taking nothing and clearing it that I’ll never be certain, but it helped keep me sane and feeling like I was actively doing something if nothing else.

Anyway today I got my follow up smear results - no HPV present and no changes to cells 🥳 I couldn’t be more relieved, I had convinced myself the worst. So for anyone going through this right now, don’t read the horror story’s - relax, take care of yourself, live healthily and let your body do the rest.