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Changes in the skin cells of the cervix which suggest that a healing
process is underway or that the cervix is reacting to the presence of a virus or bacteria.
While these changes are not dangerous, their presence often provokes
gynecologists to repeat the Pap smear at a sooner-than-expected time (such as 6 months,
rather than 1 year after the previous Pap). The reasons for this increased surveillance
are:
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Reactive or Reparative changes make the Pap more difficult to interpret,
so that the clinician cannot be as reassured by this Pap as he/she would by a Pap without
these changes, and
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Distinguishing between reactive/reparative changes and early dysplasia is
difficult and the Pap interpretation may be incorrect.
Other gynecologists feel that in a patient with previously normal Pap
smears, the first appearance of reactive/reparative changes is not cause for alarm and
they will repeat the Pap at the next annual examination. They reason that should there be
an underlying dysplastic process, the progression of
Dysplasia is
usually so slow that there is no particular advantage to repeating the smear sooner than
the annual exam.
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