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The Traditional Pap Smear

The Traditional Pap Smear

During a traditional Pap test, your doctor scrapes your cervix using a medical spatula. Your doctor collects and sends your sample to a lab for testing. There are certain steps your doctor takes to ensure the sample collected is enough for testing. Your doctor will avoid contaminating your sample with lubricant, which your doctor uses to insert the speculum during your exam. Your doctor also takes the Pap sample before samples for other gynecologic problems such as STDs.

If you have much discharge during the swab, your doctor will remove some of this discharge before scraping cervical cells from your reproductive tract.

Studies suggest the conventional Pap exam may detect up to 80 percent of severe cervical abnormalities and lesions, with accuracy increasing to 90 percent when a doctor uses a cone biopsy procedure with a Pap smear.

There are some studies suggesting the newer thin layer technology may improve detection of more severe lesions in part because this technology allows greater removal of contaminants.