Colposcopy: The Cancer Examination

Cervical cancer is one of the severe cancer diseases that happens to women around the world. To diagnose this disease, colposcopy is a procedure that allows you to see your cervix up close in order to find if there are cell changes that could develop into cancer.

What is Colposcopy

Colposcopy is the medical procedure where the cervix, vagina and vulva will be examined in order to diagnose the abnormalities of the cancer by a special tool, colposcope. The colposcopy procedure will be suggested if the Pap test result is unusual. The doctor might take the tissue sample of your cervix for laboratory testing by using cervix biopsy to find the unusual cells that can be the sign of cancer.

Diagnosis via Colposcopy

Colposcopy is the medical procedure that helps diagnosing the abnormalities in the cervix and in the following lists, these are the symptoms and disease that can be diagnosed with the colposcopy.  

• Cervicitis
• Genital warts
• Cervical dysplasia (Precancerous changes in the tissue of the cervix)
• Precancerous condition of the vagina tissue
• Vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN: Precancerous condition of the vulva)

Preparing Before Colposcopy

Before the colposcopy procedure, the doctor may advise you to do these following steps to prepare for the colposcopy.

• Make sure that you are not having a period on the day you will get the colposcopy. If you have, please arrange your new appointment.
• You must not have sexual activity especially penetrative vaginal intercourse before colscopy at least 1-2 days.
• Any products that have to be placed inside the vagina, such as vaginal medications or tampons are not allowed to be used before the colposcopy for  at least 1-2 days.
• Before getting a colposcopy, you should take OTC pain medicine, Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), and aspirin.
• A sanitary pad should be prepared because the colposcopy can maybe result in very light bleeding or vaginal discharge.

Procedure of Colposcopy 

These are the steps of the colposcopy procedure.

• At the beginning, a metal tube-shaped instrument called “speculum” is inserted into your vagina. In order for your doctor to see your cervix clearly, the speculum holds open the walls of your vagina.
• After that, the colposcope will be used in order to look at the cervix. This tool will be placed away from vulva and the scope will look through your vagina for the examination.
• To stain the cells and make it easier for the doctor to see the location of abnormal cells, they will apply acetic acid or vinegar to your cervix and vagina. This step will cause a mild burning or tingling sensation.
• If there are any unusual areas of cells, the doctor might have to perform the biopsy to collect the tissue sample for the laboratory testing.

After Colposcopy Care

In colposcopy, you won't be subject to any activity restrictions after your colposcopy if your doctor doesn't perform any biopsy to take your tissue sample. After the process, you might experience slight discomfort and can take a painkiller to relieve it. Moreover, some vaginal bleeding and discharge can also occur as side effects.  However, if the doctor also performs the biopsy during colposcopy, these are the effects you may experience and how to cope with them.

• A slight vaginal bleeding will occur for a few days (last longer than only colposcopy).
• A dark and smelly discharge
• The pain of your vagina or stomach

In order to take care of these side effects, you may avoid using tampons and use a sanitary pad instead for a while during bleeding. Besides, vaginal intercourse also is not allowed because it may worsen the side effects for a period of time according to your doctor's instructions.

Result of Colposcopy

For colposcopy results, you will be informed right away if there are no unusual cells found. However, it will take 4-8 weeks to get the result if you get a biopsy during the process.  With biopsy procedure, it can result following the list below.

• It can indicate the result with no abnormal cells.
• If the result displays the abnormal cell, the result will be divided into 2 terms (4 stages) in which it indicate the severe of cervical disorder:
  
  
• cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)
  
  
• CIN1: At this level, the risk is low and the cell changes are about 1/3 of the lower layers of the cervical epithelium. You might need to follow-up your symptoms by cervical smear test or colposcopy.
• CIN2: This stage is a medium risk. There will be more cell changes on the cervix’s surface. The doctor will suggest you to get the treatment, such as, colposcopy, LEEP, or biopsy to get rid of abnormal cells.
• CIN3: This stage offers high risk and the cell removal is the preferable method for this stage, such as LEEP, LLETZ, or cone biopsy.
  
  
• cervical glandular intraepithelial neoplasia (CGIN)
  
  
• CGIN: This stage also has high risk for the progression of cancer. In order to cope with it, cone biopsy is preferred.

Colposcopy Conclusion

To conclude, colposcopy is the medical procedure testing in which it performs to examine the cervix condition if there are any abnormalities or risk of cancer. This procedure will use a special instrument called colposcope in examining the cervix. Colposcopy is very useful because it indicates the accurate detection of cervical precancer and early invasive cancer.