mild precancerous cells

[Nataliieexo]

I had a smear at the beginning of the year and it came back with moderate cervical changes, I think had the biopsy and it came back as mild pre cancerous cells. I had initially opted to not have them burnt away as I wanted to ttc but that was back in February and I have since put off ttc until early next year. The Dr said it was fine to leave them and see how they are at a smear and biopsy at the beginning of next year. Now I'm worried it's going to have got worse by then. I'm pinning all my hopes on them going back to normal because I know that they can. And the fact my little boy was just 6 months at the time also had me hoping it was a hormonal thing causing the changes to my cervix. I also had spotting in the first trimester because of a red patch of irritated area on my cervix and now I'm worried it was the

 

[jd83]

Sorry for the late reply to your post, but I was just browsing through and came across this. It wouldn't be due to hormonal changes. Hormonal changes would only result in at most, reactive cellular changes, never an actual dysplastic lesion. If your pap smear was moderate dysplasia, that means high grade dysplastic cells were seen on the test. The biopsy having mild dysplasia means low-grade dysplastic cells were seen on the biopsy. Keep in mind that doesn't mean the lesion became low-grade. That's a possibility, but its also a possibility that they just didn't get an accurate sampling of the entire lesion. Your best bet is to be going for follow up at 6 month intervals to follow the lesion, and make sure it doesn't progress. Or have it removed by LEEP or Cone bx removal.

As far as it going back to normal, the possibility for a lesion to go back to normal is much higher for low-grade lesions than high-grade lesions. Low-grade lesions are typically caused by HPV that hasn't fully integrated into the cell's DNA, so it can be cleared by the body. High-grade lesions the HPV has typically fully integrated into the DNA of the cell, which is why they suggest full biopsy removal of the entire lesion. The body can't clear the virus once it's fully integrated into the DNA the way it can for low-grade lesions. If you choose to do frequent paps to follow the lesion, they will let you know if they see progression that they advise needs removal.

Good luck, hun. Hope that helps to better understand the process.

 

[Nataliieexo]

thank you for your reply, the letter said 12 months to have it done again which will be febuary. I had considered asking to have another smear sooner but I'm not sure I will be able to get one. Does it mean I will get cancer one day or can it stay the way it is and never progress?

 

[jd83]

thank you for your reply, the letter said 12 months to have it done again which will be febuary. I had considered asking to have another smear sooner but I'm not sure I will be able to get one. Does it mean I will get cancer one day or can it stay the way it is and never progress?

Either of those are possible. It's possible it may not progress. It's possible it could go away. That would be unlikely, though, for a high-grade lesion. It's possible it could eventually progress to cancer, if intervention not given when advised. They will be tracking progression of the lesion on your pap tests, colposcopy, biopsy if needed to see where the lesion is as far as grading of dysplasia. If it continues to progress, and become worse, they will strongly advise you to have it removed so that it doesn't become cancerous. Your chart will already be marked for closer follow up due to the high grade lesion, so they will be checking results very carefully for tracking of the lesion. As far as how often follow up occurs over there, I can't comment to that. Here in the US, standard of care is 6 month follow ups for a high grade lesion that has not been biopsy removed. If its been biopsy removed, they will continue the more frequent follow ups until they are sure the tests have gone back to normal cells. It would definitely be worth calling and talking to your provider about what their standard course of action is, just to better understand your treatment plan.

The progression of lesions goes like this:
Normal cells, Atypical cells of undetermined significance (meaning its possible there's a lesion, but there just aren't enough of the atypical cells on the pap test to say for certain), low-grade lesion, high grade lesion (moderate, severe, carcinoma in situ), carcinoma.