Hi fran86

Gosh, I’m sorry to hear you have so much going on, and it’s no wonder you are concerned...,although it’s too soon to assume you have cancer anywhere just yet.

First of all, I’m not a medical professional, just someone who has been through cervical cancer twice so my experiences are based around the knowledge I have gained from that. 

Have you told your doctor all of your symptoms? A full blood count in normal ranges is a good thing, but not all cancer is picked up by blood tests, so it’s not a definitive answer. It’s good to have had a smear, but this is not a diagnostic test for cancer either-it is a screening for the HPV virus to be followed possibly by a colposcopy if the result is positive for HPV, which is extremely common. Your immune system needs to be good to fight off HPV, but it does sound like your immune system may not be at its best right now given your fatigue and other symptoms. 

The fact that your cervix looked very red could indicate a cervical ectropion, where the cells from inside the cervical canal grow on the outside and this can cause bleeding. This is not cancer, and is not connected with cervical cancer. 

Your symptoms can very easily be the symptoms of something other than cancer, especially cervical cancer, but the first step is to find out your smear results and the results of the ultrasound you are having. The ultrasound will allow a good look at your pelvic area to see if there is anything going on in there. It is not typically used to diagnose cervical cancer, but it could indicate if there are any issues within the pelvis..with your womb for example. 

The doctors will go through testing one thing at a time, as much to rule things out as rule them in, and unfortunately this all takes time. It is really important that your doctor is aware of all of your symptoms in order to get the right type of tests done, but you have made a start with the smear test and ultrasound. You may not need a colposcopy at all-that is not automatically your next step as the cervical cells are only now tested if you have a positive HPV result.

You need to make sure you have told your doctor everything you have said here. That’s really important, and if you have good results from the smear and ultrasound, but still have all of these symptoms then you need to go back to the doctor and say you are still having issues. 

I understand how worried you will be, and your anxiety will not be helped by your fatigue and pain, which no doubt will make everything feel even worse. But you need to hold tight for these first results to come back to see what the next step might be. It’s very difficult to be in this limbo period of waiting when you don’t yet have answers, but my biggest piece of advice would be not to use dr google in an attempt to dianipose yourself. It cannot tell you what might be wrong and will give you all sorts of scary and irrelevant information. 

The next piece of advice I’d give you is that nothing is cancer until they tell you it is, and no matter how much you worry it won’t change anything. You are doing the right thing by getting tests, so try if you can not to let your anxiety run away with itself at this point when you don’t know anything. Easier said than done, but I’m speaking from experience here. 

Try and look after yourself and do things to minimise your worry-distract yourself by doing things you enjoy, and try not to focus on “what if”. 

I hope your results don’t indicate any kind of cancer, but please keep in touch and let us know how you get on. The forum is very supportive too if there is a problem. xx

In my case, I had post menopausal bleeding, went to the doctor who referrered me to gynaecology. I had a lesion on my cervix, so had biopsies taken. It was a tumour, so got a cancer diagnosis a week later. 

There are several different types of cervical cancer, and many different types of gynaecological cancers, but please don’t assume you have cancer just yet as it will make your anxiety worse. To be honest you are not really describing any of the typical symptoms of cervical cancer other than pelvic pain, which normally is well down in the pelvis and doesn’t go to the abdomen. 

Dont write off the ultrasound test just yet-it could give all sorts of results for issues in the pelvic area which are not cancer, but much less serious. 

I waited a long time before going to the doctor-stupidly- and this was pre covid, but even with a cancer diagnosis everything seemed to take a long time to happen-tests, scans, planning etc. Nothing is quick, but they need to make sure they have all the information they need to make the right treatment plan. 

Living in the moment is a good philosophy, and making the most of life. I personally don’t want to spend my life being anxious and worrying because it doesn’t actually help with anything. xx

Hi! 
 

I had a high risk HPV and CIN1 diagnosis on my smear test. I am 25 with two little children and I have recently had my colposcopy. 
 

I had biopsy's taken and the majority of the opening of my cervix showed abnormal cell growths. 
I had this two weeks ago and I am still waiting the results and I am worrying. 
 

I have a few questions if anyone can answer. 
1) if I need these removed, will it affect fertility? I am unsure if I want any other children later in life. 

2) would giving birth 5 months ago have anything to do with these changes? 
3) I had and still have, cervical erosions while I was pregnant - does this play a part in the changes to my cervix? 
4) is CIN1 precancerous cells? 
5) I also have adenomyosis and endometriosis, does this have anything to do with the changes?
 

thank you, I have anxiety and I overthink. I always tell other not to worry until you need too but when the big C is involved, even if it's not that, just being tested for it is very hard to digest and relax. 
 

Hi [@K2710]‍ 

Sorry to read you are so worried, but it's understandable when you have needed further investigations. I'm not a medical professional so can't answer all your questions but can give you some info.

The hpv virus being active in your system is what causes the abnormal cells. 
 

CIN1 is a low grade abnormality of precancerous cells, but it's NOT cancer and having this level of abnormality would be highly unlikely EVER to become cancerous. The cells may regress and revert to normal on their own and you may not need any treatment.

if you do need treatment, this would involve removing the abnormal cells but this should have no effect on future fertility, and you would be well monitored and checked on again to make sure all the abnormalities had been removed.

The wait for biopsy results can be quite long due to current backlogs, so may be several weeks.

Hope you don't have too long to wait now.

Hi!

thank you so much for replying! 
 

You have explained this better to me than any doctor has. So thank you very much! 

If you can, try not to overthink everything and run ahead of yourself. Minor cell changes are extremely common and easily treated if need be, but you are young, so you may just be monitored without the need for treatment,

The whole point of the cervical screening programme is to pick up early changes before they become any worse and it's very successful at doing just that. Good luck!

Hi [@Minska]‍ 

thank you so much for replying! 
 

I have had my results back and they found CIN2 cells and still positive HPV. They have told me they are holding a meeting on the 20th September in which they will discuss my case and the treatment required. 
 

With HPV, I know it lays dormant then can reactivate, does this mean if I next have a smear and it's dormant, that the cells won't be there if I didn't have any treatment? 
I most defiantly will have them removed I'm just trying to understand how HPV works! Do you think they will just laser off the cells? 

Hi @K27210
 

With CIN2 cells it's possible they could regress and go away without treatment, so the meeting where cases are discussed will be deciding whether to monitor you or do the LLETZ treatment for these. I think it depends on lots of different factors, like your age and how much of an area of abnormality has been seen. The younger you are, the more chance your immune system can fight the infection and put it to an undetectable level.

Equally it's possible that without treatment the cells might not regress and if that were the case they would still be there next time even if you tested negative for hpv because it had gone dormant and was undetectable, as it has already done its damage.

It's a sneaky thing, hpv!