So I was irresponsible and went 13 years without a Pap. I’m in the US. I recently had a physical in August and my new primary care doctor gave me a papa test and it came back abnormal. So I was sent for a colposcopy. She took 4 punch biopsies and they came back no cancer and CIN3 Secere. So I was scheduled for a LEEP or LLETZ procedure which I had done yesterday. It was a nightmare. It took forever and he said he had to remove a much larger portion than he expected. He also had trouble stopping the bleeding and said I’m now high risk for bleeding complications. He will call me with my results if they come in before my followup appointment with him next week. He wants to check me to see if I’m healing okay. So I have two major worries. One is that I feel like a ticking time bomb. He said he never had a patient bleed as much as me. So I’m terrified that its only a matter of time until it happens. Secondly, I’m terrified because it was such a large area that now it will be cancer. So did anyone get different results from the LLETZ than their punch biopsies? Was it better or worse? Also, did anyone have a late portion removed and it still wasn’t cancer? Finally, did anyone else have significant bleeding during their procedure but okay after it? I didn’t bleed like that from the punch biopsies. I’m so anxious. I thought this worry was done after the punch biopsies were negative for cancer but now I’m right back where I started ...: terrified and anxious!
Hi Kellie,
I had a very similar LLETZ experience a couple of months ago. She took a large chunk away and she had real trouble stopping the bleeding,it took over half an hour to stop it. I bleed quite heavily for the rest of that day but it did slow down alot the next day and no bleeding realted issues. The only issue I had was a urinary infection 3 days later which is apparently very common after LLETZ.
I had no idea what grade of changes my abnormal cells were before my procedure, I went for what I thought was a regular coloposcopy which I had had a couple of years ago so thought I knew what to expect! She told me my cells looked very bad (she didn't elaborate further!) and they would be doing a LLETZ there and then. I then had the agonising wait for results. Luckily my GP has been fantastic and took a look at my notes a week later and confirmed they thought I had CGIN (similar to CIN3 but less common glandular changes) and they thought they had removed it all. I eventually recieved a letter from the hospital 6 weeks later to confirm what my doctor had told me and that I will be called back to Colposcopy clinic in 6 months for a test of cure.
I know it is hard as alsorts went through my mind afterwards but try not to worry, abnormal cells don't neccessarily mean cancer and the LLETZ procedure has a good success rate in removing all the adnormal cells.
Keeping my fingers crossed for a good outcome for you.
Lisa x
Thanks so much! I appreciate you sharing your story and it does make me feel better. The anxiety is the worst part of all this. The pain of the procedure was not fun but I can handle that, it’s the worry and stress that is killing me!
