Hello and thanks for posting,

I can appreciate your concern at the moment regarding your daughter's referral.

We have information on the risks and causes of womb cancer which may be of interest. Womb cancer can be genetic in about 5% of all cases. There are certain inherited syndromes that can increase risk, such as Lynch Syndrome which is linked to mutations in DNA mismatch repair genes (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2). Genetic testing can be done to test for this. That is something that your daughter can ask the specialist more about. Womb cancer is very treatable when detected early.

Hyperplasia (womb thickening) is more common that womb cancer. It is a non-cancerous condition where the lining of the womb (endometrium) becomes abnormally thick due to excessive cell growth, often driven by high oestrogen levels without enough progesterone.

Doctors classify endometrial hyperplasia based on the kinds of cell changes in the endometrial lining. Some types of endometrial hyperplasia greatly increase the risk for cancer and others don’t.

Types of endometrial hyperplasia include:

• Simple or complex endometrial hyperplasia (without atypia): This type of endometrial hyperplasia has normal-looking cells that aren’t likely to become cancerous (“without atypia” means less likely to become cancer). This condition may improve without treatment or the specialist may recommend treatment with hormones.
• Simple or complex atypical endometrial hyperplasia (with atypia): If the type of endometrial hyperplasia is “atypical” or is “with atypia,” it has a higher chance of becoming cancer. Without treatment, the risk of endometrial or uterine cancer increases.

The specialist may use the terms simple and complex when they classify the condition. Simple and complex refer to the types of patterns they see when they look at the cells from a biopsy sample. They will be able to advise on the best management moving forward after the investigations.  

I hope that this helps,

Best wishes,

Vanda