Dark patches on inner labia

I have recently discovered completely by accident dark patches on my inner labia. I was having a smear the same day and the nurse said it's just age and hormones as I am going through the menopause. I googled and wasn't happy with this so got an urgent appointment to ask for a referral I was told it could be a year. I bit the bullet and went private and was told its absolutely not hormonal and i need urgent biopsies. My issue is I am paying for this and I honestly can't afford it. I am terrified of getting my biopsies but also now if its bad news am I going to sit on a NHS waitlist for so long I could die. I'm so worried 

  • Hello

    What a difficult time you are  having.  It sounds like your GP surgery didn't put you on the urgent referral pathway (sometimes called the two week wait) as they didn't judge the situation as being urgent.  However, if the biopsies come back indicating something serious and your private doctor wrote to your GP and explained this I would think they would have no option but to get you on an urgent pathway.  If cancer is diagnosed the NHS is expected to make every effort to start treatment quickly usually within 62 days of an urgent referral or within a month of a meeting to give you a diagnosis or discuss your treatment plan.

    From your post, it looks like you have decided to have the biopsies done privately, but if this isn't the case it might also be worth asking the private doctor to write to your GP to explain what they think the problem might be to see if this would lead to your getting a faster diagnosis on the NHS.

    I hope that helps

    Martin