Asking for an HPV Test After a Pap Smear It’s not necessarily a given because it takes a fairly sophisticated laboratory to be able to run the HPV testing and subtype the HPV. At Mayo Clinic we can get those results back very quickly, usually within a week, where at other institutions it can take weeks and weeks before they will get those results back. We automatically do the HPV testing if there’s an abnormality noted on the Pap smear. So it’s what we call a reflex test. If there’s an abnormality we save that specimen and then that gets sent to a laboratory for HPV testing, but that’s not universal. If a woman wants the HPV test she should ask if it is available at that institution, and it is available here at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.