What are the symptoms of early cervical cancer?
With the development of information, today, cervical cancer is a familiar name to most women. Everyone is raising awareness about early detection of this disease. Understanding the symptoms of early-stage cervical cancer will help you be more proactive in examining and screening for early abnormalities.
What is early stage cervical cancer?
Initially, some normal cells in the cervix change and become abnormal. Abnormal cells can disappear (also known as spontaneous regression), remain intact or develop into cancer (but it also takes a long time, maybe 10-15 years). This is called the pre-cancer stage of the cervix.
After the pre-cancer stage, there is early stage cervical cancer (stage I). This is when the cancer is only in the cervical tissue and has not spread to nearby organs or nearby lymph nodes.
Symptoms of early stage cervical cancer
Precancerous changes in the cervix rarely cause symptoms. The only way to know if there are cell changes is to have a cervical cancer screening test .
Symptoms of early-stage cervical cancer are often not obvious. They can take several years to develop. However, some people will experience the following conditions:
- Vaginal bleeding after sex
- Vaginal bleeding after menopause
- Vaginal bleeding between periods, periods that are heavier or last longer than usual
- Vaginal discharge and vaginal discharge increase, have a strong odor or are mixed with blood
- Pelvic pain or abdominal pain during sex.
When do cervical cancer symptoms get worse?
When cancer spreads from the cervix to other parts, you will see that in addition to early-stage cervical cancer symptoms, conditions such as:
- Constipation, bleeding when defecating
- Difficulty urinating, pain when urinating, or blood in the urine
- Urinary incontinence
- Dull or severe back pain of unknown cause
- Swollen feet
- Abdominal or pelvic pain
- Fatigue, weight loss and loss of appetite
- More vaginal bleeding.
What to do when there are early symptoms of cervical cancer?
However, the above symptoms can be caused by many other conditions that are not cancerous. The only way to know if they are cancerous or not is to see a doctor immediately, don’t delay. You should not be subjective because if you ignore the early symptoms of cervical cancer, it will cause the cancer to develop quickly into more severe stages, making the process of cancer control more difficult.
At this time, doctors will prescribe the following:
- Vaginal examination using hand and speculum.
- Pap test: Uses a long rod to scrape some cells outside and inside the cervix. It is then smeared on a glass slide and taken to the laboratory to check for abnormal cells.
- HPV test: Take a small sample of cervical cells to test for high-risk HPV strains. This test is done alone or with a Pap test. The results will show whether you have a higher risk of cervical cancer after being exposed to the virus.
If the Pap test shows symptoms of stage 1 cervical cancer or pre-cancer, they will do additional tests such as:
- Colposcopy: Use a colposcope to examine the cervix and vagina.
- Biopsy : Taking a small amount of cervical tissue to examine under a microscope to look for cancer cells.
Other early-stage cervical cancer imaging tests such as ultrasound , X-ray, CT scan, MRI scan or PET scan help find tumors or other signs of cancer.
Whether or not symptoms of early-stage cervical cancer appear, every woman should have a gynecological examination at least once a year. As for cervical cancer screening, do it periodically from age 21 onwards.
