What are the symptoms of cervical cancer? What tests are needed to diagnose cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is a serious gynecological disease, which not only affects patients' work and life, but also poses the most important harm to the body. We must immediately undergo examination and diagnosis after experiencing physical abnormalities.

Symptoms of cervical cancer

1. Contact bleeding: After sexual intercourse or constipation, vaginal secretions (vaginal discharge) mix with droplets of blood, appearing filamentous and dark red. Women over the age of 30 who have already given birth and live together as spouses should pay attention to the sudden appearance of punctate vaginal bleeding after sexual intercourse as an early signal of cervical cancer.

2. Irregular vaginal bleeding: manifested as a small amount of non menstrual vaginal bleeding between two menstrual periods and vaginal bleeding after amenorrhea. The former is easily seen as menstrual irregularities, while the latter is easily seen as a manifestation of menopause. However, this irregular vaginal bleeding is the initial symptom of patients in the early stages of cervical cancer.

3. Abnormal vaginal discharge: an increase in vaginal discharge accompanied by changes in color and odor. The symptoms of increased vaginal discharge are generally later than contact bleeding, initially with normal color and odor, gradually becoming serous secretions. In the late stage of cervical cancer, there are Misi like and water like vaginal discharge.

4. Fever: Late stage patients experience fever due to the metabolism of cancer tissue, absorption of necrotic tissue, or co infection. The symptoms of cervical cancer in late stage usually have a body temperature of around 38 ℃, with a few exceeding 39 ℃. Due to bleeding and consumption, anemia and emaciation can occur. With the spread of cancer cells, a severe bladder vaginal fistula can form when the cancer invades the rectum, causing symptoms such as difficulty in defecation and bloody stools. Vaginorectal fistula is severe.

5. Pain: As tumor cells extend, they invade the pelvic wall and compress the surrounding nerves, clinically manifested as persistent pain in the sciatic nerve or lateral sacrum and iliac bone. Tumor compression or erosion of the ureter, narrowing or blockage of the duct can cause hydronephrosis, manifested as unilateral low back pain, even severe pain, and further develop into severe symptoms such as renal failure and uremia.

Cervical cancer examination methods

1. Cervical exfoliative cell examination (cervical exfoliative cell examination): Take a small amount of cell samples from the cervix, place them on a glass slide, and study abnormalities under a microscope. Doctors can detect small early changes in cervical cells. This is currently the simplest and most effective diagnostic method for extensively examining cervical cancer.

2. TCT (liquid based thin-layer cytology), where the collected cells are placed in a sample bottle containing cell preservation solution and sent to the laboratory for production. Its advantage is to remove impurities and form a clear monolayer coating of cells, which is clear to pathologists at a glance. The diagnostic rate of cervical cancer, especially precancerous lesions, is significantly improved. The preservation solution of TCT can also be directly used for human papillomavirus gene detection.