# how safe is a colposcopy while pregnant?



## laws24 (Feb 25, 2008)

Hey all I haven't said much yet I'm Emily and I'm 12wks pregnant and a little nervous I had a miscarriage at 9 1/2 weeks last fall. So far everything is great! We are very excited! We went in a week ago and saw the baby move and saw the heartbeating, very cool. I also had the normal first exam. But my CVNM called today and said that I had an abnormal papsmear most likely due to being pregnant but they wanted to check for sure and they are reccommending a colposcopy. From what I've read it's safe but i wanted to hear from everyone out there what they thought. I'm just a little nervous I want everything to go well so I'd rather not take chances if I didnt have to. So let me know what you think or if you've had one. I won't be getting it for another 2 wks so I would be about 14wks along.


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## crazydiamond (May 31, 2005)

Well, my experience was a little different because I didn't know I was pg until I was in the office to get my colposcopy (mild dysplasia due to HPV). For some reason, they decided to do a pg test on me and it was +! Totally wasn't expecting that. I was about 7 weeks at the time.

Anyhow, the OB said that she didn't want to do the colposcopy because there is a slight risk. She recommended I go home and think about things, particularly because the pregnancy was unexpected, and then to reschedule if I wanted to go forward with the colposcopy. I didn't go back. After the pregnancy, my PAPs were normal again.


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## thixle (Sep 26, 2007)

I wouldn't do it. An abnormal pap can be caused by pregnancy.


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## JBaxter (May 1, 2005)

I wouldnt mess with my cervix during pregnancy.


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## Jannah6 (Aug 29, 2007)

I had one and a biopsy done during my second pregnancy. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have done either. There is risk of miscarriage, luckily it didn't happen to me.


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## rach03 (Dec 30, 2006)

Honestly I probably would not...this time I even asked my OB if we could skip the pap until my 6 week postpartum appointment. I remember with my first pregnancy I had a bit of spotting after my pap and I didn't want to spot again because I knew this time it would make me crazy.


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## Tiffanoodle (Nov 10, 2007)

I wouldn't. It's so common for pap's to be wrong during pregnancy. Just doesn't seem worth it.


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## treehugginhippie (Nov 29, 2004)

For them to recommend a colp after your first abnormal pap (I assume this is your first abnormal one) is _really_ jumping the gun IMO...ESP during pregnancy. And they even said it's probably due to pregnancy. They are probably just covering their butts by recommending a colp due to insurance reasons. I would definately decline having it done at all and request a repeat pap at your 6 week post-partum check-up.


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## MissAnnThrope (Aug 14, 2006)

I had one done and they just looked and didn't take anything. They are going to repeat it 6 weeks after the birth.

So a there's a good chance they will just want to look and see if anything is what the pap said. For me it is pretty moderate to severe, but they still didn't take a biopsy. They didn't want to do that until after the baby is born.

Good luck and I hope it is just caused by the pregnancy.


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## chitowntokcmama (Jan 22, 2008)

I just had one done at 22 wks. An important thing to keep straight is whether they are just doing the colp or want to do a biopsy too. I had just a colp. All they did was look, they didn't touch anything close to the cervix. It took about 30 seconds. With a biopsy, I imagine there could be some risk of bleeding and cramping.

As far as accuracy of paps goes, I tried to argue the frequent false positives thing, and my CNM said that they don't see false positives with the level of abnormality they got on me. And even though she said it could be pregnancy related and nothing to worry about, she wanted a "starting point" so that when she looks again after pregnancy, she can see how it has changed and if more agressive measures are needed at that time.


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## klink2 (Jul 27, 2005)

When was your last pap? Was it normal? Honestly, I have an abnormal pap about every 3rd year, and they've never requested that I go straight to a colposcopy. It is always, "let's retest in 3 months and see what happens." Only once was it abnormal the 2nd time and then we proceeded to a colposcopy (which was normal.)

That said, I agree with the pp. A colposcopy should only be a very close look at your cervix (although they swab it.) A biopsy would be a different story.


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## kerikadi (Nov 22, 2001)

I have had 2 colposcopy's I would never have one done during pregnancy. I refused one during my second pregnancy because to be honest even if the results were bad I wouldn't have had any kind of procedure during the pregnancy anyway so why find out? I would decline and have another PAP done at your first post baby visit.


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## Yaniris (Oct 29, 2007)

I had a colposcopy and a biopsy done at 17 weeks because of (mild dysplasia due to HPV). They will be checking me again in 4 weeks( I will be 28 weeks) and 6 weeks after birth. The doc was very gentle and I had no bleeding at all.


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## DBZ (Aug 9, 2005)

A colposcopy is just a visual exam of your cervix. All they do is dab it with vinegar and see if anything turns white. If it was really bad, they might recommend a biopsy, but chances are they wouldn't do that because you are pregnant.

Abnormal paps are common in pregnancy. I had one and went ahead with the colpo because I have had bad paps in the past. When they did the colpo there was absolutely nothing wrong with my cervix.


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## CherryBomb (Feb 13, 2005)

I would have it. But, I had an abnormal pap that ended up being pretty severe dysplasia, so I don't mess around with such things.


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