Do Ovarian Cysts Cause Abnormal Pap Smears?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Joshua Vogel with Carolina Ob-Gyn, a division of Wilmington Health Associates and I'm going to try to answer the question, "Do ovarian cysts cause abnormal pap smears?" Couple of basic things to understand, pap smears are design to primarily detect cervical cancer as well as potentially vaginal cancer. On occasion, they may detect an endometrial cancer, fallopian tube or even ovarian cancer. But they are not intended to be screening test for other than cervical and vaginal cancer and cannot be relied upon as a good screening test or certainly not a diagnostic test for these other cancers. As to ovarian cysts; ovarian cysts are an extremely common occurrence and actually occur normally in all ovulatory women. Sometimes an ovarian cyst can become or represent cancer and I think that's really where the crocks of the question that people ask lies. So occasionally, cells from an ovarian cancer can make their way down through the uterus, through the cervix and onto a pap smear. And very occasionally an abnormal cell detected on a pap smear, turns out to have come from an ovarian cancer. But it's an uncommon occurrence and certainly the pap smear would not be considered at all a reliable way to detect ovarian cancer. This has been a discussion of do ovarian cysts cause abnormal pap smears."