HrHPV Testing Guidelines

The testing of cytology smear samples for high risk Human Papilloma Virus (HrHPV) is funded by the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) for women eligible under the “Guidelines for Cervical Screening in New Zealand”. 

Any HrHPV testing outside the guidelines is not funded by the NCSP. The test can however be performed for a fee of $74.00 at the request of the patient or the clinician.  

A cytology smear sample collected in the ThinPrep vial and sent to DML will be processed and interpreted by a team of trained scientists and cytopathologists. The HrHPV testing is also performed on-site at DML.  The cytology and HrHPV results will then form parts of a single report and the recommendation will be based on the combined results which will be reported at the same time. 

The HrHPV test will be reported as “detected”, “not detected” or “invalid”.

Please note that the HrHPV test available through DML detects whether HrHPV genital material (DNA) from any of the 13 high risk types of HPV most commonly associated with cervical cancer is present in the specimen submitted and does not indicate the specific subtype.