Hello Charlie540,

Bleeding after the LLETZ procedure can happen for some time after surgery, as this has been happening for longer, you did the right in speaking to your GP and get a referred back. Further investigation is needed to make sure everything's being monitored so please try not to worry. You can read more information here, which I hope will reassure you.

Best wishes,

Moderator Anastasia

Hi Charlie

I just wanted to make a couple of observations on your post. First, it’s possible to have more than one grade of CIN going on at the same time. The punch biopsy takes a small amount of tissue and simply may not have been in an area that actually had CIN3, but was CIN2. The LLETZ treated a larger area and the pathology results indicate you did have CIN 3, but hopefully this will have been cleared by the procedure. 

My main point is that cells do not change in a period of weeks, and the most likely explanation is that CIN3 was present at the time of your punch biopsy but simply not picked up by that. They can see that cells are abnormal at the colposcopy, but it is the pathology from the LLETZ over a bigger area that should give the final CIN result. 

Spotting etc can continue for a while after treatment while your cervix heals, and that’s why it’s usually recommended that you don’t have sex/use tampons/go swimming for 6 weeks after treatment in case of infection or causing bleeding. Getting checked out is the right thing to do, and hopefully you will be reassured by that. 

Hi all. I'm in a similar position to the OP in that I'm really concerned and the speed at which I've had high grade cell changes.

Had bleeding after sex last year and after an extremely unhelpful GP appointment (she had the audacity to ask exactly what I was worried about) I pushed for a referral Nd was seen by colposcopy. As far as I was told all they found was an ectropion which was treated with silver nitrate .

April this year I had some more bleeding so returned to GP as advised by clinic.  She did a smear and referred me back to colposcopy purely for the ectropion .

Roll on smear results, actually showed HPV and low grade cell changes. At my colposcopy apt the nurse seemed pretty confident it was very low grade changes and only took a biopsy to enable me to have further treatment for the ectropion .

When the biopsy results finally arrived (9 weeks later)they actually show CIN2/3 which had come as a shock especially as I was reassured it low all along. Extremely scared about how Ive gone from nothing to CIN3 in less than a year and wondering what could have happened in the 9 weeks since the biopsy.

Hi Jess

It’s unlikely that anything will have changed since your biopsy-precancerous cells take a long time, typically many years, to change to cancer. You you could have had CIN2/3 for a longer time than you are aware of and it simply wasn’t picked up before. Testing is not infallible at a smear, and the colposcopy gives more accurate results. CIN 2/3 is still not cancer, and nor is the ectropion, but the abnormal cells should be removed, which is what Iassume will happen for you via a lletz procedure? 

I think I'm just worried because I was seen in Colposcopy last November and nothing was picked up at all other than the ectropion but as that is what I was referred for maybe that's all they looked at.  My GP didn't really have any answers for me on that.

Yes I'm booked in for LLETZ on 30th September so not too long to wait. I'm not that worried about the procedure it's just the waiting for those results after. I feel like all I've done is be waiting for bad news since April and it gets so tiring. 

Hi Jess, 

I know that's been a long time since you've posted this, but I'm going through this right now and I'm curious how was your results? I've had a colposcopy with a couple of pinch biopsy taken after my smear results came back with high risk hpv and moderate abnormal changes. Biopsy results showed CIN2, had my Lletz done just before Christmas x