They are usually caused by infection with certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) and are found when a Pap test or biopsy is done. Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions usually go away on their own without treatment, but sometimes they can become cancer and spread into nearby tissue.
Background: Although low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) most often are the result of infection by human papillomaviruses (HPV), a small proportion of women with LSIL have negative HPV tests.
Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions (LSIL) means there are low-grade changes that are usually caused by an HPV infection. Your health care provider will likely ask you to come back for more testing, as explained on page 10, to make sure that there are not more serious (high-grade) changes.