HPV Screening Test

About the new HPV screening test

Answering common concerns following the new HPV screening test and what a positive result means.

Two women wearing green recycling t-shirts holding a wooden crate filled with recyclable cans and containers.

Background

What changed in September 2023

In September 2023, a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) screening test became the new method for cervical screening in Aotearoa New Zealand. This test looks for the high-risk HPV types that may lead to cell changes which could cause cervical cancer. Most positive high-risk HPV tests never develop into cancer. In most cases this new HPV test replaces the need for a speculum examination (pap smear).

Getting a positive result

A positive result is not a cancer diagnosis

Having a positive high-risk HPV test does not mean you will have or will get cancer. After a positive test you can be monitored by colposcopy through the cervical screening programme. This ensures that if abnormal cells are detected they can be treated, if necessary, well before they may ever develop into cancer.

Woman wearing a green volunteer shirt holding a yellow recycling bag filled with plastic waste.

Your sex life

You don't need to change how you have sex

Unless you have been vaccinated before becoming sexually active, you are likely to have been exposed to genital HPV. Most HPV is asymptomatic and clears on its own. A positive high-risk HPV test does not mean you need to change who you sleep with, or what you do with them sexually. There are no diagnostic or screening tests for high-risk HPV for males.

Videos

Learn more about HPV

Together, we can make a real impact in communities around the world. Help us bring hope and support.

The HPV Vaccine

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is probably the most common STI there is, affecting most people at some point in their lives. In collaboration with THETA (The Theatre in Health Education Trust) , STIEF has produced this video to help explain HPV and the HPV vaccine.Watch more videos from STIEF and Just The Facts on the YouTube channel here.

Ian Frazer – HPV Video Lecture

'Translating research into practice. The HPV vaccine story - where to in 2017'. A lecture with Professor Ian Frazer © University of Queensland, 2017

Permission granted to NZ HPV Project / STIEF to publish. No part of this video may be downloaded, reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means by third parties without prior written consent from the University of Queensland.

Overview of the Story of HPV (Human Papillomavirus)

This video provides information for parents, caregivers, health workers and students planning to work in the health sector. It's about HPV, vaccination and the importance of cervical screening and practising safer sex in protecting women's health. Produced by the Ministry of Health 2011.

‍

Note: anyone aged 9 - 26 years (inclusive) can receive the HPV vaccine FREE as part of the Ministry of Health's HPV Immunisation Programme.

Visiting the Sexual Health Clinic

Visiting the Sexual Health Clinic – watch this video to get just the facts to help you with your consultation or to talk to a friend about how to visit a sexual health clinic.

‍

Just The Facts is brought to you by the Sexually Transmitted Infections Education Foundation (STIEF). An initiative funded by the Ministry of Health through collective District Health Boards to educate New Zealanders about sexual health and STIs.

The Male Story

Emerging Epidemic of HPV (Human Papillomavirus) related Head and Neck Cancer. A lecture with Dr Bruce Haughey and Dr Julian White (2016).

Hosted by the New Zealand Society of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery and the New Zealand HPV Project.

#HPVAwarenessDay

STIEF is proud to be a partner of the International Papillomavirus Society's HPV Awareness Day campaign - every year on March 4th.

Support our work

Every leaflet, every call, every page on this site is funded by donations.

STIEF is the non-profit behind the HPV helpline, the patient leaflets your GP hands you, and the information on this site. We don't charge for any of it. If this page helped you, or you want to help the next person who lands here, a one-off donation keeps it running.

Donate Now

Donations of $5 or more are tax deductible. STIEF is a registered NZ charity.

Four smiling children wearing gloves and raising thumbs up behind recycling boxes filled with paper and plastic.

Just got a positive HPV result?