This ailment proceeds absolutely imperceptibly. In this case, erosion is one of the main causes of cervical cancer, and it can occur even in 16-year-old girls. Do not believe those who say that erosion can "resolve". It must necessarily be treated. The most effective methods are frost and laser.
Erosion of the cervix is ??one of the most insidious ailments. First, during the primary gynecological examination, it is detected in 15-20% of women. And secondly, it proceeds without pain, fever and other obvious symptoms.
Like any common, but incomprehensible disease, erosion has overgrown with a lot of myths. We asked them to dispel the doctor-gynecologist Olga Voronova.
Myth 1. Erosion is caused by infection.
Not always. The cervix is ??the transition between the uterus and the vagina. So, the most vulnerable place in the reproductive system of women. Injuries during childbirth or sexual intercourse, inflammatory processes in the vagina, hormonal changes in the body of a woman - all this can cause erosion of the cervix. But the most common cause of pathology is, of course, infections. Any, even insignificant and well-treated infection of the vagina can spread to the walls of the cervix. A long-term infectious disease (chlamydia, mycoureoplasmic, papillomavirus or herpetic infection) changes the properties of epithelial cells, increases the rate of their division, which in turn causes erosion.
Myth 2. Pathology of the cervix arises in 40-year-old women.
The average age of women exposed to cervical pathologies, indeed, was earlier about 40 years. But over the past 10 years, erosion has become younger. Today, it occurs even in 16-year-old girls. First of all, this is due to the increased pathologies of the endocrine system, which cause an imbalance of female sex hormones. And this provokes uncontrolled cell division, the growth of glandular structures, and, as a consequence, the appearance of tumors.
Myth 3. Erosion can disappear by itself This is the greatest ignorance that can cost a woman's life. Annually, cervical cancer is registered in more than 600,000 patients. And the main reason for this is untreated erosion, which first passes into dysplasia of the cervix (precancerous state), and in a few years and into malignant pathology. So violations of the mucous membranes of the cervix are, in fact, a time bomb. Therefore, it is not worth risking your life, fueling the dubious hope that erosion will "dissolve" by itself. Such cases, of course, are (for example, after childbirth), but unfortunately, it happens very rarely. In order not to start this dangerous disease, you need to go to a routine examination to the gynecologist at least once every six months.
Myth 4. A small erosion in a cancerous tumor will never outgrow The dimensions of erosion in no way affect its "malignancy". Therefore, it is impossible to determine the nature of damage to epithets by eye. So the competent doctor on examination of the patient even with the most minor erosion will necessarily conduct more detailed studies of the affected area. First of all, he will take an analysis for the presence of infections that cause pathologies of the cervix (will carry out bacteriological and cytological research). The next stage of diagnosis is colposcopy. This study of the cervix under the microscope allows a detailed study of the structure of the epithelium, to detect its pathological changes even in places that neither the doctor nor the patient suspected. After that, a biopsy is conducted - a study that allows you to establish a definitive diagnosis and find out with what form of the degeneration of epithelial cells the doctor has cases (benign or malignant). If necessary, the doctor can ask the patient to take a blood test for the level of the hormones of the ovaries and the pituitary gland. This will give information on the cause of erosion, so more effective treatment will be prescribed..
Myth 5. If there is erosion, it is necessary to do a moxibustion. Until recently, diathermoelectrocoagulation (cauterization of the affected tissue with the help of high temperatures) was indeed one of the most common methods of combating erosion in Ukraine. However, the effectiveness of this method reaches 50-65%, and therefore such a wide use of cautery was associated more with the relatively low cost of equipment necessary for the procedure. So today gynecologists recognize that this technique is more harmful than good, because cervical tissues burn after healing very slowly (2-3 months), and among women who survived diathermoelectrocoagulation, often there is endometriosis of the cervix, menstrual irregularities, And during birth the cervix can not open wide enough because of the scars formed after the procedure.
Myth 6. Pathology of the cervix can be cured with non-traditional methods of treatment. Only if the degree of tissue damage is insignificant: therapy with chemical coagulation (douchement by pharmacies) and non-traditional methods of treatment (reflexotherapy, physiotherapy, phytotherapy) do not give a high therapeutic effect. Therefore, they can not cope with serious pathologies of the cervix uteri. In addition, chemical coagulation is contraindicated in women with allergies, because medications can cause them to have serious allergic reactions.
Myth 7. The most effective method of treatment is cryodestruction No, although cryodestruction has a very high efficiency - 85-90%. Therefore, in the last decade this method (freezing of affected tissues with low temperatures) has become very widespread among domestic gynecologists. However, he also has his weaknesses. For example, none, even the most experienced, gynecologist can not with a high accuracy dose the depth of freezing of tissues. Therefore, often a scab on the cervix becomes loose, and a woman who has undergone this operation for a long time (more than a month) is disturbed by abundant,. But even after their termination, a woman during the first three months after the operation is forbidden to swim in the pool, river or sea. Taboo is also imposed on vaginal sexual contacts. In addition, cryodestruction can not be used to treat nulliparous patients, as well as in the presence of acute infections and inflammatory diseases in the vagina and cervix. As for the repeated use of such surgery (if erosion gave a relapse), the percentage of unwanted complications and side effects increases by half.
The only effective method of treating erosion of the cervix is ??recognized today as laser surgery.
Most importantly, its advantage over all other methods of treatment is the dose (at a strictly defined depth) of the laser beam. In addition, laser technology reduces the risk of infection with infectious diseases during treatment to a minimum. Another plus of laser surgery is the rapid healing of the treated surfaces (the epithelium is damaged pointwise and not deeply). And scarring after this procedure does not appear, so this method is applicable for nulliparous women.
Medicinform. Net.