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30.01.2019 10:35:15
Women often do not notice polyps that grow in their uterus. “Doctors discover very soft neoplasms more often by chance when performing an ultrasound for other reasons,” explains Dr. Antje Huster-Sinemillioglu from Dortmund, a gynaecologist.
But sometimes a lentil-size or a cherry-size polyp causes discomfort, such as intermenstrual bleeding and heavier than usual periods. Very heavy discharge and minor bleeding after intercourse occur from time to time if polyps appear in the vagina.
Such tumours can occur anywhere in the body if there is a mucous membrane there, for example, in the nose, in the intestines, in the uterus and even in the cervix. There is still no clear explanation for why polyps occur. “Since they appear most often during menopause, there is an assumption that they are caused by an imbalance of the female hormone oestrogen and the hormone of the corpus luteum,” explains the gynaecologist Dr. Jessica Gross, Head of Department of Gynaecology and Mammology at Charité, the Benjamin Franklin Campus in Berlin. In such cases, cells in some areas of the mucous membrane begin to divide intensively, pile up, take tear shape and swell out, first without a stem and then on a stem.
If a patient reports symptoms, the gynaecologist uses a transvaginal ultrasound to examine the inside of the uterus. “Polyps in this area are almost always harmless, so women do not have to worry,” explains Huster-Sinemillioglu, a board member of the Advisory Committee on Women’s Health in medicine, psychotherapy and society.
Nevertheless, she recommends that polyps should be regularly examined to see whether they have changed or not, and sooner or later they should be removed. “Finally, neoplasms in the uterus are malignant in about 0.5% of all cases, that is, it concerns one of 200 polyps.” If they are located in the cervix, they are almost always benign. If polyps cause, for example, intermenstrual bleeding, they are, as a rule, removed and carefully examined.
If there is a small polyp on the surface of the uterine cervix, the doctor removes it under local anaesthesia, often straight away in the clinic. However, neoplasms, located deep in the uterus, are often large, or the woman is afraid of this small intervention. In such cases a hysteroscopy is performed, which includes curettage.
The doctor examines the organ from the inside by using a hysteroscope and purposefully removes all growths with special nozzles. The gynaecologist Gross says, “This is minor surgery that takes a gynaecologist 10-15 minutes to perform it under general anaesthesia in an outpatient surgery centre or hospital.” Thus, the problem is eliminated.
