In this series we shall be looking at the symptoms of cancer of the cervix
Like I highlighted in the previous article on this topic, cancer of cervix is the second commonest cancer in women and it is a major killer. The good news is that if diagnosed early it can be treated with excellent outcomes. Cervical screening is a good way of identifying cells that will turn into cancer and if detected early these cells can be destroyed so they don't become cancerous.
It is therefore crucial that every woman especially those between 20 and 65 years go for cervical screening ( pap /cervical smear).
What are the symptoms of this killer disease?
It may show no symptom until it becomes advanced at which stage it may be incurable. It is therefore essential that early diagnosis is made, hence the need to go for cervical screening.
There are however some symptoms that are associated with this disease . These include the following:
• The commonest symptom is abnormal vaginal bleeding. By this I mean vaginal bleeding that is not the normal menstrual bleeding.
Examples are
* coital and post-coital bleeding: This is vaginal bleeding during and after sexual intercourse.
* Intermenstrual bleeding:
This is bleeding in between your normal periods
* Post menopausal bleeding
This is bleeding in women who have attained menopause ( means they have normally stopped seeing their periods)
* Contact bleeding:
This is bleeding for example while you are douching or when your vagina is being examined with fingers or speculum by your doctor or nurse.
Before I become a scare monger, I must stress that not all cases of abnormal vaginal bleeding is due to cancer of the cervix. There are several other causes.
Apart from abnormal vaginal bleeding, other symptoms of cervical cancer are
• Painful sex (dyspareunia):
I am also not saying that every woman that experiences discomfort or pain during sex has cancer of the cervix. As always there are other possible causes of painful sex ranging from simple reasons lack of sexual lubrication in the woman, the male partner having an oversized penis, to vaginal infection and so on and so forth.
• Vaginal discharge which is often foul smelling :
Like we know there are other causes of offensive vaginal discharge like bacterial vaginosis (BV) etc.
• Pelvic pain
• Dysuria ( pain or burning sensation during urination)
My advice is that any woman who experiences abnormal vaginal bleeding , vaginal discharge etc must go and see her doctor as a matter of urgency.
Let me also quickly add that at advanced stages cancer of the cervix may show other symptoms especially when it has spread to other organs. Some of those symptoms include
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Tiredness/lethargy
• Constipation
• Bone pain
• Change in bowel and bladder habits
• Leg swelling
• Passing blood in urine (haematuria)
• Urinary incontinence
• Several others
Watch out for a follow up article discussing how to diagnose cancer of the cervix, treatment etc.
Thanks for reading
Dr Chin Akano
