I’ve recently been experiencing some intermittent bleeding, for a while I put this down to a coil being fitted during a c-section 8 months ago. I went to a smear test appointment recently ( my first one ever unfortunately), the nurse struggled to see the cervix and said there was a growth which started bleeding. Fast forward 1.5 weeks after being red flagged I’ve just had a LLETZ procedure. The consultant said the growth is very worrying looking but they removed it during the procedure and it’s being sent for biopsy now as well as a biopsy from my womb I think.
It’s clear the consultant thinks it’s a cancerous tumour, I’m now driving myself crazy thinking what stage could it be at. Has anyone had a similar diagnosis story and it turned out that the tumour was confined to the cervix, like maybe a stage 1B3?
Hi SMG24 and welcome to our group,
I can understand your worry about this, especially since this was your first smear test, but “growth” is a very general term and does not necessarily mean that it is cancer. Are you certain it was 4cm and not 4mm?
I wonder if you’ve been reading doctor google, since you’ve been very specific in imagining this is a stage 1b3 cancer? It’s a large growth to be removed during a LLETZ procedure, as this procedure normally removes a much smaller amount of tissue so it would be very surprising that this was done if cancer were suspected.
I had something seen on my cervix during an examination which was slightly smaller at 3.7cm, but only biopsies were taken and it was not removed. My gynaecologist wanted to be sure what it was before any further action was taken, so are you certain that this growth was fully removed and it wasn’t just biopsies which were taken?
Cervical polyps are usually non cancerous growths, and they can sometimes be removed in a procedure like this, so while you say it’s clear that the doctor thought this was a cancerous tumour, did they actually say they thought the growth was cancer? If so, it is highly unlikely they would have removed it without checking first by taking biopsies.
Sometimes going on the internet can worry you more and make anxiety worse-until you know what the growth is, it’s really not helpful for you to be imagining a specific cancer stage and assuming that’s what you have.
There are different factors which are taken into account when the lab analyses what was removed, when it can then be established what type of cervical cancer it is (there are several different types), what grade the abnormal cells are (how much different they are to normal cells) and exactly how far cancer has invaded the tissues. A cancer stage isn’t just decided on size.
I have seen ladies with a much larger tumour than I had who had a lower stage of cancer than I did, so it’s really impossible to guess at a stage from diagnosing yourself on dr google.
We all will know the fear of something being found and appreciate it is very difficult to wait for answers, but please try not to go down the cancer rabbit hole without a diagnosis. It would really not be the norm for a doctor to remove a growth of 4cm without doing tests to establish what it was first.
Have you been given an idea of when you’ll get your results? I hope it’s not long to wait as it’s so difficult not to know. Please let us know how it goes for you.
Sarah xx
Ok…so it’s definitely 4cm. I am not a doctor but I really think that they will have taken biopsies and not removed it totally, due to the size. I honestly cannot think that any doctor would remove something that size, totally, without having a general anaesthetic.
When I had my own first gynae appointment and asked the consultant to do all he could at the one appointment he did what he could, but said anything more would need to be under anaesthetic.
Did you get a letter after your appointment saying what the procedure was and what was taken? That would confirm if you also had a womb biopsy-I had a hysteroscopy but no womb biopsy as I was bleeding too much at the time. Womb and cervical cancer are 2 different types of gynaecological cancer but mine was identified as cervical from the biopsies(I had more than one biopsy from my cervix).
Google is really not your friend right now, so if you can try to stay off it and stick to reliable sites like here, NHS and Cancer Research UK at least that will give you correct and updated information. Much on google is worst case scenario fear mongering so that’s why it can be unhelpful while you’re scared.
Im glad you don’t have long to wait for your results-mine came back exactly a week later but an appointment had already been made for me for the following week when I left my first appointment.
Sarah xx
Ah… thanks for clarifying-I shouldn’t have made assumptions, so my apologies. It makes a difference to have that extra information and more sense to me now!
I’ve had quite a number of procedures in hospital, not all cancer related, but have always been given a letter on discharge to confirm everything done because the discharge needed to be signed off by the doctor before I could leave. When you read it, feel free to ask any questions to see if anyone can advise of their own experiences.
Sarah xx
