Coping With Cervical Dysplasia

I am 49 years old, divorced, and have two college age children. In August 2006 I had a partial hysterectomy just my uterus. I had large fibroids that were causing extreme bleeding and pain - my periods were 12 days long and floods! I recovered from that. A little more than a year later, in November 2007 I was diagnosed with severe cervical dysplasia CIN III. My doctor said it was borderline carcinoma in situ - pre-cancerous but headed that way. I freaked. He and I were both shocked. He’s been my OB/GYN for 25 years, delivered both my kids and I’d never had an abnormal pap before. Besides, I’d had a normal one the previous summer when I had the partial hysterectomy The only variable was that I had been dating a man for about 4 months in late 2006-2007. I think I got the aggressive HPV from him.

At my age, and since I’d already had one surgery in this area, I chose to have a total hysterectomy in December 2007. My doctor didn’t want to take my ovaries knowing I would go into instant “surgical menopause”. I convinced him that I wasn’t interested in surgery #3 with the potential of late stage ovarian cancer He reluctantly agreed, but later said my ovaries didn’t look great during surgery so we made the right choice.

I am continuing to get a pap test every three months. I’ve only had one follow-up so far. I’m hoping I will be clear for the whole year. I’ve had a few hot flashes, but am on a low dosage estrogen patch. There is breast cancer history in my family, so I’m not a candidate for full-blown long-term HRT.

Now I’m just hoping that I can continue to have somewhat of a normal sex life with a future partner. I would be interested in reading any comments from anyone currently living with HPV and how they are handling it.