Cytologic diagnosis of human papillomavirus. Influence of age and pregnancy stage.

In a review of cytologic findings in 446,038 premenopausal women whose smears were examined during a five-year period ending in 1990, it was established that cytomorphologic evidence of human papillomavirus infection was significantly more common in the younger groups: those under 30 years of age had about twice the rate of the older groups. Similarly, in a group of 29,153 pregnant women it was found that cytologic signs of human papillomavirus were reported twice as often during the second half of pregnancy as in the first.