Lab results came back today....all negative. So my "abnormal cells" were from many of the other reasons that could have caused them. This is the same midwife practice that noted 10th-15th percentile femur lengths for our twin girls at 35 weeks....but never told us why. Which caused us both to irrationally worry about DS (we did not do any early testing, and would take/love whatever we got!), but still!
Anyway, thank you for the thoughtful, logical answer. You were spot on!
I agree. My guess too is that it was an assumption that HPV was involved. They could be Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance or ASCUS. Those can occur due to something as simple as inflammation or infection. But ya, HPV causes them too. However, abnormal cells found could also be precancerous and would need to be removed. I'd want them examined further personally and frozen off.
I would be really surprised if you had HPV. My guess, and it's a guess, is that your midwife is assuming the "cells of unknown origin" are HPV, without any real evidence.
She is smart to do the HPV test - that's a good next step, if that's what she did. Was it a culture where she used a swab on your cervix?
They see tons of women, and to be fair to them, most "cells of unknown origin" probably end up being HPV. It's estimated that 90% of sexually active people will get it at least once in their lifetimes.
You and your husband are not high risk, and some of these steps will just be standard protocol.
HPV clears itself from the body within 2 years in about 90% of those infected. Others can take longer. However, given that your husband is your only partner, and his last partner other than you was 17 years ago, and it was protected, I'd be very surprised if this is HPV. (It's possible to get HPV while using a condom, but it reduces the chances a lot, and given that, and how long it's been, combined with all your other normal paps, I'd be surprised.)
Let us know what happens.