Smear test - pink/orange cervix and quick to bleed. So scared. [GRAPHIC PHOTO DOWNTHREAD] - edited by MNHQ

[Sarah3940]

Does anyone have any experience of the above? Been having moderate lower back pain for a few weeks (had sciatica since a back injury a year ago but it’s playing up at the moment), and one instance of spotting a few days after my period. Saw the GP yesterday who inspected my cervix and said it was a pinky orange colour and bled very easily on contact. She’s sent the swab off and told me she will refer me to a gynaecologist whether the swab comes back negative or not. I’ve been told to call back in a week for my results. I last had a smear exactly a year ago which came back fine, and the nurse didn’t comment on my cervix looking abnormal at all.

I am absolutely petrified that it’s cancer, I have a young daughter who I can barely be in the same room as today. Just in constant tears. I had a normal blood test last month, inflammation level was normal. Please if anyone can give me some advice or support I would be so grateful.

Much much much more likely to be an ectropion mft.nhs.uk/app/uploads/sites/4/2018/04/18-28-Cervical-Ectopy-June-2018.pdf
which are v common and totally harmless. A normal smear a year ago is reassuring as well. (I’m a GP)

Oh gosh, that does look pinky orange doesn’t it. The GP had proper poker face and didn’t give me an indication in any way of what she thought it was.

Thank you so much for replying to me. I have terrible health anxiety which I try so hard to keep under control but I’d been doing really well lately, this has been such a blow.

Also I don’t take hormonal contraceptives (haven’t had sex in over a year), could it still be cervical ectropion do you think?

Yes absolutely some women just seem to have them! If they are causing lots of bleeding or discharge gynaecology can cauterise them.
If it makes you feel better I’ve only actually found one or two cases of cervical cancer on my examination in 20+ years. The vast, vast majority I’ve been involved with are picked up by the smear system (or are in older women who’ve never had / had very few smears.) Almost all the slightly weird looking cervixes I refer to get checked up / be on the safe side are completely fine, even more likely to be fine if they have a clear smear history.

Thank you, you’re very kind to answer me on what is doubtless your day off.

May I just ask - why wasn’t my GP able to diagnose this, or even suggest that it might be ectropy? From what I’ve read most cases seem to be picked up during a routine smear by nurses or GPs. If it is ectropy wouldn’t she have said so? I live in an area with mostly populated by older people, I wondered if maybe my GP hasn’t seen many cervices. And she’s only about 30. And I guess she’s doesn’t routinely do smears unlike nurses. That’s all silly conjecture though. I’m just so desperate to reassure myself, I’m hiding upstairs away from my family so they don’t have to deal with me.

No you’re absolutely right. I’m a (older!) GP who fits coils so I see more than average and I sometimes still find it hard to work out if I should be worried about a cervix, simply because we so rarely see any really suspicious ones. Peering at them down a speculum with less than ideal lighting is totally different to the textbook photos which are usually taken at colposcopy (special microscope in the gynaecology clinic) so look much clearer!
As you have intermenstrual bleeding with it then referral to gynae isn’t unreasonable. She may not have even realised she’d got you so worried, sorry!
(And you are only distracting me from cleaning and tidying the house so actually quite welcome!!)

Sorry I meant to say not unreasonable to get it checked out/may need cautery if it keeps bleeding. I refer tons of women with intermenstrual bleeding because the guidelines say we should, very very few (fingers of one hand in 20 years) have had anything worrying.

I wish you were my GP @checkedroses, you are extremely kind despite your protestations about the cleaning. I really appreciate the extra reassurance you’ve given me. The GP I saw is a bit of an odd fish, not horrible or rude but just quite robotic with very little given in the way of reassurance or tact, so it’s quite likely she has no idea that she delivered this information in a way that has set my mind racing. I told her a year ago that my health anxiety was so bad that I was battling three different types of cancer in my head (and a real minor heart problem), and she was just a bit 🤷‍♀️ I ended up getting private therapy for the anxiety which really helped, but I must say it’s through the roof today with this new development.

What you’ve said about seeing very few visible cervix cancers has definitely allayed my fears a bit. My last smear was totally clear and I haven’t had sex since, she didn’t mention any lumps or masses, so I’m going to try to believe it’s likely to be ectropy. Thanks v much again x

No worries. Health anxiety sucks - even drs aren’t immune! Hope you can relax a bit more now.

@checkedroses sorry to ask one more question, I’m trying hard not to crack and ring the GP and using logic rather than fear to determine my actions!

I had a blood test a couple of months ago and it was fine (in fact I had two in the space of a month!), if there was something sinister going on I’m assuming it would show? They did full blood count, kidney, liver, proteins etc. White blood count was fine, would that be elevated if my body was fighting something like cancer?

Thanks very much again.

Hi, normal blood tests are always a good thing, but being honest not massively relevant to your symptoms either way- there's no real blood markers for cervical issues. But I honestly would be surprised if you have anything sinister given what you've said and your normal smear history.
While you're waiting try and distract yourself but mainly try and get enough sleep (anxiety always worse when you're sleep deprived) and alcohol will probably make it worse as well.
It might be worth speaking to your GP or therapist about more therapy if you are really struggling though. And I wouldn't discount medication either, I've seen some great responses to health anxiety with SSRI group meds.
Hope you don't have to wait too long - the waiting is generally the worst bit.

@Sarah3940 it seems like the lovely @checkedroses has helped to put your mind at rest a bit.

I have cervical ectropion. Smear tests have always been ok, with no mention of bleeding or colour change/difference. I went to the GP because I was bleeding after sex. It hasn't been anything to worry about and they offered leave it if I was happy as I was, or to cauterise. I've left it so far.
I hope it is something as straightforward as cervical ectropion for you.

Thanks very much for replying guys. I’ve gone in to the bad place a bit just now, I’ve been keeping busy and trying to stay positive/realistic, but the wait is taking its toll. I rang the surgery earlier to request the referral be brought forward as I have some health insurance with my work, and the notes on the system said ‘possible infection, refer to gynae after swab results’. Ectropion isn’t classed as an infection is it? I’ve googled Cervicitis and it looks all discharge heavy and yucky, the GP didn’t mention seeing anything like that, I’m so confused now. Why didn’t she know it was Ectropion/Erosion? All I can think is that it didn’t look like that and now I’m scared. Either that or she doesn’t know anything about cervix issues and has just referred me on as a result?

Sorry I know no one can answer my questions really, I just wanted to type it out somewhere as I’m starting to get upset again.

If she's only 30 she'll only have been qualified as a GP for 2 or 3 years probably, and most of that time will have been during covid -with much less routine gynae / smears etc done than normal- so she may well be fairly inexperienced at looking at cervixes!!
There's plenty of times I've referred things to a specialist as I didn't know what was going on, only to get a letter back saying it is obviously xyz condition- these times get less as you get more experienced but still happen occasionally. It's how we learn to some extent- GPs can't know everything about every condition from day 1 (or at any time, tbh) and if you asked one of my male partners to look at an ectropion they'd probably not have a clue either!
If you've got private insurance hopefully the wait won't be too long for you. Hope you can try and distract yourself for now.

Thank you so much @checkedroses, your wise words on here have pulled me away from the edge more than once. You’re right, she may just not have the experience to glance at a cervix and straight away know it’s something benign (everything crossed!!). I think because so many people online have said their GP diagnosed it on sight at a smear, I started getting worried again.

I’ve managed to keep busy this afternoon and in my more lucid moments I realise that the chances of me having advanced cervical cancer are incredibly slim. I don’t really have any symptoms except for a tiny smear of blood a couple of days after my period last month… even my bad back has improved in the last few days. I don’t have lots of bloody discharge or bad odour, or extremely heavy periods or pelvic pain. Plus my clear smear last year. Sorry I’m just listing now but I feel like I can pop back and read this moment of sanity post when I inevitably start panicking again tomorrow!

If this turns out to be an innocent diagnosis then my next step is discussing an SSRI prescription with my GP. I really can’t go on living with this constant terror of illness, it’s ruining my life ☹️

@checkedroses

Much much much more likely to be an ectropion mft.nhs.uk/app/uploads/sites/4/2018/04/18-28-Cervical-Ectopy-June-2018.pdf which are v common and totally harmless. A normal smear a year ago is reassuring as well. (I’m a GP)

This is what first came to my mind too

@Sarah3940 I hope you get the news you want .Please keep us updated.

Thanks very much everyone. I will definitely update, if it’s good news hopefully this thread will comfort someone else in the future if they find themselves in similar circumstances x

OP I get this all the time with my
Smears (sometimes even after sex) I think it's normal, we have a sensitive cervix.

I recently had similar and my cervical bleeding on contact turned out to be thrush. I hadn't put two and two together as there wasn't any discharge. Hope its all fine op.

Thanks again for all your messages of support and advice, they really have been a lifeline this week. I managed to get a quick appointment with another doctor at the surgery this afternoon who has agreed to have a look at my cervix and tell me what she thinks. She told me that she won’t sugar coat it for me though and if it looks sinister she will tell me. I’m absolutely beside myself with worry. I would go as far as to say I’m in absolute terror. I can’t seem to get anything straight in my head or get a grip.

Update for anyone following 😕

Just got back from the GP, she did a really thorough exam and couldn’t find any masses with a manual exam. She then inspected the cervix and said that it didn’t look like ectropion as it wasn’t ‘pouting’ out of the cervix hole. She said it was a smooth red patch about the size of a small fingernail, just above the cervix hole, which didn’t bleed on contact. She said the rest of the cervix looked completely normal. She said she wasn’t too worried about cancer as she couldn’t see any ulcerations or lumpy areas, but she couldn’t rule out cell changes. She kept saying it looked like a little erosion or inflammation, but my understanding is that erosion is considered the same thing as ectropion these days 🤷‍♀️ She then googled some images to show me and told me that my patch looked like a smaller, square-ish version of the picture attached. But this picture is the Wikipedia image for Ectropion!! I didn’t want to keep questioning her and she was so kind to fit me in today so I didn’t press her on the point. She said she’s not worried enough for a 2 week referral and that I should pursue my private referral as that will probably be around the same timeframe anyway.

She said if it’s cell changes it looks like it’s been caught early, and was very dismissive of the idea that it might be anything advanced, which has made me feel a bit better. I’m feeling extremely confused about the ectropion/erosion thing though, and that the image she said looked like mine is the one used by Wiki to demonstrate ectropion. All my swabs for infection were negative too.

@checkedroses @GreenLunchBox, do you have any ideas what it could be? Or has anyone else had a similar exam? So grateful always for any and all advice.

Sorry I’m not long back in from a horror duty dr day! At the end of the day I suspect this will be somewhere on the spectrum of ectropion / erosion and what any individual will call it depends a bit on where and when they trained tbh. It certainly sounds v unlikely to be anything too worrying from what the second GP has said.
I do think having a chat with a GP you trust about your health anxiety would be a good thing once this is all over, it sounds exhausting and like it’s stopping you enjoying your daughter because you’re so frightened somethings going to happen to you.

Thank you so much @checkedroses, I’m so sorry you had an awful shift and extremely grateful that you checked in on me despite your own fatigue.

Yes you’re absolutely right, I can’t go on like this, it’s ruining all our lives. I managed to overcome my health anxiety for many months with therapy but I recently had a close family member receive a very upsetting diagnosis and my health anxiety flared up worse than ever within days. I should be receiving my referral today and things will get moving. Once this is investigated, whatever the outcome I will be starting a low dose of SSRI to see if it helps.

Thanks again. I hate leaning on people but I’ve never been so desperate for support in my life.