HPV Detection in Clinician-Collected, Self-Collected Vagina, Urine, and Menstrual Blood Samples

In plain language

A prospective study of 167 premenopausal women referred to a Hong Kong colposcopy clinic after an abnormal Pap smear, each giving self-collected vaginal, urine and menstrual blood samples alongside a clinician-collected cervical sample, all tested for high-risk HPV with the same assay. Menstrual blood agreed with clinician-collected results in 82.1% of cases and had a relative sensitivity of 0.83 for high-grade lesions, and only self-collected vaginal samples matched clinician sampling for detecting them.

Key numbers

167

Women referred for colposcopy after an abnormal Pap smear

82.1%

Agreement with clinician-collected HPV results

0.83

Relative sensitivity for HSIL versus clinician sampling

What it means

In a head-to-head comparison, menstrual blood performed in the same range as urine and below a self-collected vaginal swab. It places menstrual blood among the self-sampling options rather than ahead of them.