A medical misdiagnosis based on an erroneous Pap smear has, unfortunately, led hundreds of women to have to undergo aggressive and invasive treatments.

Prior to the introduction of the Pap smear, cervical cancer used to be the leading and most common cause of death for women in the United States. However, since then cervical cancer has been preventable through routine check-ups, and any type of dysplasia, or early pre-cancerous changes, can usually be detected through routine pap smears and pelvic examinations. Through the Pap smear’s introduction more than 60 years ago, it has significantly reduced the rate of cervical cancer death among women.

However, cervical cancer medical misdiagnosis often occurs, causing cervical cancer to be diagnosed much later. This leads to the non-detection of pre-cancer cells and the failure of treatment to help stop cervical cancer before it drastically spreads. Simply stated, however, women who received a regular Pap smear should not have a medical misdiagnosis with their diagnosis of cervical cancer.

Overview: Medical Misdiagnosis and Cervical Cancer

What a Pap smear does is act like a screening test to look at cells from the cervix, the lower part of the uterus. The Pap smear test helps detect abnormal cells that have the capability to transform themselves into cervical cancer. This process is linked to an infection with HPV, or Human Papilloma Virus.

The presence of abnormal cells within a tissue is known as dysplasia, which is the initial prior stage to possible cancer development. Advantages of this kind of detection are to remove the cells before cancerous cells appear in the cervix.

Once cancer cells begin to appear and have formed in the cervix, they can grow and spread to the ovaries and uterus leading to serious treatments such as a hysterectomy to remove cancer cells. At later stages, other treatments may include radiation and chemotherapy.

A medical misdiagnosis of cervical cancer on a Pap smear test may cause some of the following serious injuries and complications. These include:

• Inoperable cancer
• Premature death
• Severe physical pain
• Scaring and disfigurement
• Loss of reproductive and other organs
• Lost wages
• Long-term or permanent disability
• Significantly increased recovery time
• Treatment which is significantly more expensive
• Treatment which is more invasive, painful, and aggressive

A medical misdiagnosis of cancer could be the result of physicians overlooking some of the following symptoms:

• Pelvic pain
• Blood in stool
• Bowel symptoms
• Blood in urine
• Bladder symptoms
• Vaginal odor
• Abnormal vaginal bleeding
• Unusual vaginal discharge (with or without blood)
• Painful during sex

Different kinds of common medical errors that can lead to a medical misdiagnosis for cervical cancer also includes some of the following:

• Communication errors between physicians and medical facilities
• Failure to refer to appropriate specialists
• Improper performance or interpretation of pap smears or laboratory testing
• Failure to adequately follow up or communicate with the patient
• Failure to recommend or offer cervical cancer screening
• Failure to recommend tests due to financial concerns
• Failure to recognize early warning signs and symptoms
• Failure to take a careful and detailed history
• Failure to perform a thorough and complete physical examination

If you or a loved one have had cervical cancer medical misdiagnosis within the last five years after receiving a normal Pap smear, you may be eligible to file a cervical cancer lawsuit.