Hi,
I’m just looking for a bit of advice.
I have received the results from my smear today and have been referred for an urgent colposcopy for severe high risk dyskaryosis. I was completely shocked and shaking when I read this. I was a year late having my smear as I was pregnant. Whilst pregnant I had some abdo pain and found to have an ovarian cyst and a cervical ectrpion which the consultant said was common. And I’ve also had some recent abnormal bleeding but put this down to having the contraceptive implant in after my baby was born. I’m so scared. I keep looking at my little one and crying. I’m so worried that it’s more than abnormal cells and that the ectropion the dr saw was actually the cancer. Would the letter say if the smear showed cancer? Would cancer be picked up on the smear or does it just show cells that aren’t right?
I rang my gp and he said that il have my colposcopy in the next 2 weeks which freaked me out as I know the cancer pathway is a 2 week wait at our hospital. i just don’t know what to do or what to think. I’m so scared.
Hi Mae
Deep breath hun, I know that letter is scary, but it's not likely to be as scary as you think it is! Getting you in for colposcopy in a couple of weeks is not at all unusual. Mine was less than that, and my smear results were only 'borderline', not severe.
I don't know if a smear test is that likely to detect cancerous cells, but if it was anything as bad as you fear, it would have likely been visible to the person doing the smear, and they probably would have said something at the time. Also your bleeding could very well be down to a still-present ectropian, or indeed the implant. I tried the mini-pill once, which I think has the same hormones as the implant, and bled non-stop for 2 months! (needless to say, those went in the bin ....)
Anyway, I digress. I doubt that they would tell you in a letter that you had cancer, but I equally doubt that anything is known at the moment above and beyond that the smear showed CIN3. Depending on how your local colposcopy clinic operates, they might treat the abnormal cells during your colposcopy appointment, with a procedure called LLETZ, or they might take biopsies to confirm the CIN3 diagnosis and then call you back for treatment at a later date. If it's the latter, I'd recommend for your own peace of mind that you ask the colposcopist their opinion of how it looks 'down there' as they see this all day and can usually take a pretty educated guess as to what the result of the biopsies will be. This might make you less anxious than not knowing anything until the results arrive, which may be around 4 weeks later.
It's statistically quite unlikely that you have anything other than what the smear test suggested. It does happen that they detect something else from biopsies, but it's pretty rare, so try not to worry too much about it.
Hope that helps. At least your colposcopy will be soon, so you'll have a bit more information.
E
I also have an ectropian (if that's right spelling) and I always asked if it was normal had mine for years now and it always worried me I'm 25 with 4 children and had my smear 6 weeks ago then biopsies nearly 4 weeks ago then got my results through yesterday an it's cin 3... I was as worried as you when my first letter came through and the waiting game is the hardest part... I was booked in for the 12th for lletz to have it removed now it's been brought forward to the 5th now I'm asking my self all sorts of why questions and what ifs and same as u I keeping looking my little boys and crying it's awful!!! When I had my smear the nurse told me how healthy my cervix looked so when I got the results for cin 3 it's made me question a lot of how healthy something can look when it's clearly not... sorry for the essay xxxx
Thank you so so much for your replies. Moggsey you sound like the rational sensible part of me! Haha its really helpful to have something written that I can reread when my crazy paranoid side won't stop nagging at me! Thank you. I'm slowing calming down the more I visit this wonderful forum and I really appreciate your responses (I only managed to read them today as it would appear I'm not that great with technology!) . Loulou I see your treatment day was today and I'm sending you lots of positive vibes hope you are feeling ok! Big loves to you all xx
