What Is Dysplasia of the Cervix?
Dysplasia of the cervix is something that affects many women each year. It can be scary to hear back from the doctor that there are abnormal results in your pap smear. Knowing and understanding what cervical dysplasia is may help calm the fear. In the modern age, severe or fatal cases are nearly non-existent, especially in women who have a pap smear each year.
Definition
The word dysplasia comes from two root words. Dys means abnormal and plasia means growth. Therefore, dysplasia means abnormal growth. The cervix is the opening in the uterus that leads to the vagina. Cervical dysplasia is an abnormal growth on the cervix. Specifically, when a woman is diagnosed with cervical dysplasia, it means she has abnormal cells growing on her cervix.
Types
Dysplasia of the cervix is categorized into three levels. The first is mild dysplasia. Mild dysplasia is also called CIN I. This means that there are just a few abnormal cells growing. Moderate dysplasia of the cervix is called CIN II. In this case, the cervix consists of approximately half normal cells and half abnormal cells. In severe cervical dysplasia, called CIN III, the cervix has been taken over by abnormal cells and is considered to have non-invasive cervical cancer.
Mild and Moderate Cervical Dysplasia
Mild dysplasia is sometimes treated by a doctor. Some doctors will allow it to go untreated for a time while keeping an eye on it, because 60 percent of the time, the body will heal itself. Other doctors choose to treat the condition immediately in order to stop it from progressing. Moderate dysplasia is always treated, because if left untreated it will almost always progress to a severe dysplasia, which is considered to be cancer.
Severe Cervical Dysplasia
Severe dysplasia of the cervix is also called "carcinoma-in-situ." This means "cancer in place." At this point, the dysplasia has become cancerous, but the cancerous cells are only on the outside of the cervical skin, are easy to treat, and are not considered life threatening. A woman's cervical dysplasia reaches the category of "severe" when the entire surface of the cervix has been taken over by abnormal cells. Treatment is still fairly simple because the abnormal cells are in the outer layer of the cervical skin.
Invasive Cervical Cancer
Invasive cervical cancer is the result of not treating dysplasia of the cervix. The "cancer in place" begins to spread from the surface layer of the skin and enters the body. At this point, treatment is much more complicated and the cancer could spread to other parts of the body. A woman who gets regular annual pap smears will almost never escalate to this condition because her doctor would catch it in the much earlier stages and treat the dysplasia before it had a chance to become harmful.
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