Need advice, please, confused after oncology visit

Hello Jess F,

Did your doctor tell you what grade was it?(VIN1-3) If your biopsy came back with VIN1-2, you may not need a surgery(just watch for a couple of months). You need a surgery when you have VIN3 which is high grade. Your doctor said that see you in 6 months, so I guess it was not VIN3, but I would recommend to ask your doctor.

I also have a few areas of VIN1-3, I have had 5 times surgeries so far and tried Aldera cream but did not help. I have one area with VIN3 that needs to be removed, and low grade(VIN1-2) inside of vagina which makes me itchy. I saw my doctor in Dec last year and will see him in March. He said he does not want to see me in 6 months which makes him nervous, that is because I have VIN3. So I would ask your doctor if you feel nervous to see him in 6 months, maybe could see him in 3-4 months instead. You want to see him earlier if you have VIN3.

Kuma

Hi Kuma, thank you for reading my post, my doctor said it is vin 3 High grade, but still feels confortable checking me in 6 months instead of treating it, I am very confused because I saw him 8 years ago for vin 3 and he did a wide excision. So I exspected he would do the same this time, but instead he told me vin 3 was over treated in the past, and to wait and check again in 6 months, I am in America And he is supposed to be one of the best gynecologist oncologist in my area, but I am very confused as to why he doesn’t think my vin 3 should be treated, the boipsy that showed vin 3 high grade, it was a shave biopsy and the area biopsies was very small 0.7 cm, maybe that is why??? Worried, should I insist he treat it now? Or should I trust his judgment? Thanks.         Jess

Hi Jess,

The guidelines may have changed, I had surgeries right away when I had VIN3. But now I have been having VIN3 for a couple of months at least and my doctor does not say it needs to be removed right away. I got vaginal cancer in 2014, I kept having VAIN3 for a few years(had multiple laser surgeries) then turned into cancer eventually. I would ask doctor if I could see him in 4 months instead of 6 ( I usually see him every 2-4 months)

I was told that I can get excision for VIN3 at the office, so I think it can be done soon. My VIN3 area is also tiny. I am not sure if I had shave biopsy, usually I get punch. Do you have any symptoms on your VIN3 area? I do not have any, but I do have VIN1-2 area. Oh, I live in the US and see GY oncology too. I have seen three GY oncology doctors so far and am seeing one near my house for now.

Kuma

Hi Kuma, thanks for the advice, I will try and see if he can make my appointment for 4 months to check instead. No I don’t have any symptoms of vin at all, mine is an odd case the doctors have said, I have no history of cervical dysplasia or hpv, but they assume it must be from a strain of hpv that they didn’t test for, the first spot I had 8 years ago looked like a tiny black mole no symptoms and they did wide excision when it came back vin 3 . This most recent spot was very small and tan colored flat , no symptoms, but also came back vin 3, since the boipsy site has healed the doctor can barely even see a scar or find it, maybe that is why he is waiting to treat it? Not sure, my dermatologist was the one that happened to biopsy it, and they scared me to death when they called with the results they said it was cancer and that I would probably need a skin graft , that is when I had them refer me back to my gynecologist oncologist. Also both spots I had were on the labia majora the hairy area, so if I didn’t shave I would have never know it was there.  I hope all goes well with you also, sounds like you have been through a lot, was your vaginal cancer caught early? Also I’m in Florida , the area I live in only has one gynecologist oncologist, so it would be very difficult for me to get a second opinion, hoping It is safe to not treat it immediately, never know if they are under treating or over treating this kind of thing.                                                                    Jess