What does a gynecological biopsy check?

Many women go to the hospital for a check-up and are offered a biopsy, which, as the name suggests, is a pathological examination. It is mainly used to treat gynecological diseases in women. A piece of tissue is cut from the cervix or other parts of the woman's body and examined using medical means to determine whether there is a possibility of cancer. Generally speaking, cervical biopsy is the most commonly performed examination in clinical medicine. This article will introduce cervical biopsy to help you understand it better.

A cervical biopsy is a biopsy of the cervix, which means taking a small piece or several pieces of tissue from the cervix for pathological examination to confirm the diagnosis. It is mostly used when the cervix is ​​suspected of cancer or there are suspicious cells in the cervical scraping. A cervical biopsy can confirm the diagnosis and determine treatment. Cervical biopsy is the most reliable basis for diagnosing cervical cancer. Whether it is early or late stage cervical cancer, this examination must be performed to determine the pathological type and degree of cell differentiation of the cancer.

Things to note after cervical biopsy

1. Patients with cervical cancer who experience vaginal bleeding should rest in bed and keep the perineum clean. If heavy bleeding causes anemia, they can receive multiple small amounts of blood transfusions.

2. The biopsy site may bleed, so do not have sexual intercourse, vaginal douching or sitz bath within 1 to 2 weeks after the examination. If vaginal bleeding is heavy, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment.

3. There will usually be a small amount of vaginal bleeding after a cervical biopsy, so it is best to wait one month before having sex, and be sure to wear a condom after having sex.

The cervical biopsy procedure is simple. After disinfecting the vulva, vagina, and cervix, use a special biopsy forceps to take several small pieces of tissue according to the location of the lesion and requirements, fix them in 10% formalin solution, send them to the pathology department for sectioning, stain them, observe and analyze them under a microscope, and then make a pathological diagnosis. Symptoms of cervical cancer

Early cervical cancer often has no obvious symptoms and signs, and the cervix may be smooth or difficult to distinguish from cervical columnar epithelium ectopia. Patients with cervical canal type are easily missed or misdiagnosed because of their normal cervical appearance. As the disease progresses, the following symptoms may appear:

1. Symptoms

(1) In the early stage of vaginal bleeding, it is mostly contact bleeding; in the middle and late stages, it is irregular vaginal bleeding. The amount of bleeding varies depending on the size of the lesion and the extent of invasion of interstitial blood vessels. If large blood vessels are invaded, massive bleeding may occur. Young patients may also experience prolonged menstruation and increased menstrual flow; elderly patients often experience irregular vaginal bleeding after menopause. Generally, vaginal bleeding symptoms appear earlier in the exogenous type and the amount of bleeding is heavy, while the symptoms appear later in the endogenous type.

(2) Vaginal discharge Most patients have vaginal discharge. The fluid is white or bloody. It may be thin like water or rice water, or have a fishy odor. Patients in the late stage may have a large amount of rice-soup-like or purulent and foul-smelling leucorrhea due to necrosis of cancerous tissue and infection.

(3) Late-stage symptoms include different secondary symptoms depending on the extent of cancer involvement. Such as frequent urination, urgency, constipation, swelling and pain in the lower limbs, etc.; when the tumor compresses or involves the ureter, it can cause ureteral obstruction, hydronephrosis and uremia; in the late stage, there may be symptoms of systemic failure such as anemia and cachexia.