Even if the patient has had a TAH/BSO, a pelvic exam should be done.
One of my most tragic cases was a personal acquaintace that had had a TAH/BSO. I found a pelvic mass that turned out to be ovarian carcinoma from an ovarian remnant.
When doing a pap, isn't the doc LOOKING in that general area? I would think that one would recognize a cervix vs no-cervix.
I had a student attempt to perform a pap on me once. Hurt me terribly while "looking around" and then announced she couldn't find my cervix. As far as I know, there aren't any bends or curves there, so how hard is it?
That certainly is true and can happen....but is extremely rare and unusual...any little remnant left behind could undergo malignant degeneration. It is tragic when that happens because the odds of diagnosing this in a timely manner is even less than the low liklihood of finding a primary ovarian malignancy in a "normal" ovary.