Copper IUD Use and Protection Against Cervical Cancer

We know that Cervical Cancer is caused by the HPV virus, and using condoms helps decrease your chance of picking up that virus. We know that the opening to a woman's cervix known as the transformation zone is the most sensitive area for the HPV virus to cause precancerous changes. By taking birth control pills that area of the cervix may be enlarged and thus making a woman on the pill more at risk for cervical cancer in some studies. So we have been counseling women to use condoms as their best protection against cervical cancer when it comes to contraception. But there is now evidence that copper IUDs can also, in addition to the protection condoms offer, help protect against cervical cancer. In an analysis of 26 large studies of the copper IUD it was found that the use of the IUD was associated with significantly less cervical cancer. The study done by French researchers and published in the Lancet Oncology in 2011 looked at 2200+ women and specifically showed that the IUD use was associated with about half the risk of the three main kinds of cervical cancer including the most commonly found squamous cell cancer. Interestingly there was no affect on the number of HPV cases, so the IUD use is no specifically associated with protecting against HPV infection, but likely able to improve immunity and be a protective cofactor against the development of cancer. Some experts think it's the presence of the string in the cervix that is an important factor in the protection against the cancer, but the proof for this remains to be seen.

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Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously. It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...

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