Signs of early gynecological tumors
Abnormal Bleeding
Vaginal bleeding is one of the most common symptoms of female reproductive system diseases. The source of bleeding may be vaginal, cervical or uterine. It can be considered as vaginal bleeding except for normal menstruation. Of course, in addition to gynecological diseases, some hematologic related diseases may also have abnormal vaginal bleeding. Therefore, it is important to seek medical attention when abnormal bleeding occurs, especially in postmenopausal women.
Tip: Before going to the doctor, you can carefully recall the characteristics of your bleeding: increased menstrual flow? Do you bleed between periods? Pre- or post-menstrual bleeding? Bleeding after intercourse? Is there any history of menopause? etc.
Abnormal leukorrhea
Women often have a small amount of vaginal discharge, mainly from the vaginal mucous membrane exudate, cervical canal, endometrium and fallopian tube gland secretions, etc. mixed into the leucorrhea. Normal leucorrhea is egg-white or white and sticky, without fishy odor, and the amount is small. If there is a significant increase in the amount of leucorrhea, a change in its nature or a foul smell, you must seek medical attention in a timely manner.
Tips: Although your doctor will carefully examine the nature of your discharge during the visit, it is often not easy to observe the abnormal increase in leukorrhea, or the symptoms of the discharge are not obvious at the time of the visit, so you should observe and describe the nature of the leukorrhea before the visit: color? Is there any foam? Is there any clot? Is there any pus? Is there any blood? Is there any unpleasant odor? How big is the volume? etc.
Lower abdominal masses
In women, lower abdominal masses can arise from the uterus, both adnexa, intestines, retroperitoneum, urinary tract and abdominal wall tissue. Many patients do not have obvious clinical symptoms and may be discovered only by chance or during gynecological screening. Often the patient himself cannot determine the nature of the mass, so any palpable abdominal mass should be promptly referred to a doctor.
Abdominal distension and significant increase in abdominal circumference
Although abdominal distension is often associated with gastrointestinal diseases, it is also important to be vigilant in screening for gynecological disorders. The sensation of abdominal distension is often vaguely uncomfortable, so it is not taken seriously enough. It is recommended to perform gynecological examination after ruling out gastrointestinal disorders when symptoms appear.
The public’s first reaction to an increase in abdominal circumference is often: gaining weight. In fact, this is also the time to be alert to the quiet onslaught of disease, because sometimes an increase in abdominal girth can occur when a mass grows in the pelvic or abdominal cavity or when ascites is produced. Some women find that the increase in abdominal circumference, desperately trying to lose weight after not seeing results before they seek medical attention to discover the disease, it is too late.
Pain
Women with lower abdominal pain tend to think of gynecological diseases first, and patients with acute severe pain tend to seek medical attention in time, but if it is a chronic dull pain or hidden pain, patients tend to delay seeking medical attention. Although about 60-80% of patients with chronic lower abdominal pain do not have organic pelvic disease, they should be seen for a clear diagnosis.
Tip: Before visiting the doctor, it is recommended to compile the onset, location, nature, duration and accompanying symptoms of one’s lower abdominal pain to facilitate the doctor’s correct judgment.
Cervical cytology
Cervical cytology test, also known as TCT (Thinprep cytologic test), is an important method to screen for early cervical cancer. Women who are sexually active should have annual cervical cytology examinations. The doctor scrapes cells and secretions from the junction of squamous and columnar epithelium of the cervix, which is the most vulnerable area for cervical cancer, and then saves the removed secretions in a liquid specimen bottle and sends it to the laboratory for cytologic examination.
The sampling process is simple and quick, and can be done during internal gynecological examination. Unless the cervical lesion is serious, there is usually no obvious discomfort such as bleeding and pain. Nowadays, many hospitals, such as Peking University Hospital, can perform human papillomavirus (HPV) testing along with the detection of cervical cytopathy, which is closely related to the occurrence of cervical cancer.
After the TCT results are returned, the gynecologist will take the next step based on the results.
Tips: Sexual intercourse, vaginal examination, irrigation and vaginal drug application are prohibited for 24 hours before taking the specimen.
Endometrial cytology (less invasive than diagnostic curettage)
Endometrial cytology has the advantage of being less painful, less bleeding, easy to perform, simple and quick, and can be done on an outpatient basis without anesthesia. Endometrial cells are removed for testing to identify patients with endometrial cancer and precancerous lesions. Diagnostic curettage, referred to as “diagnostic scraping”, is one of the most important methods used to diagnose uterine cavity diseases. Its purpose is to obtain the contents of the uterine cavity (endometrium and other tissues) for pathological examination to clarify the diagnosis.
What kind of patients need this test? Simply put, they are patients with abnormal uterine bleeding or vaginal discharge, and the purpose is to confirm or exclude diseases such as endometrial cancer and cervical canal cancer.
Tip: Diagnostic curettage is a surgical operation and many women have fears. Although many hospitals now offer diagnostic curettage under anesthesia, it is still an invasive procedure.
Color ultrasound
Ultrasound is often the most familiar form of examination for patients, and is now commonly used for B-ultrasound and color ultrasound. The advantage of color ultrasound is the good observation of blood flow, which means that it can reveal whether the tumor is rich in blood supply for benign and malignant tendencies.
The modalities of ultrasound are divided into: transabdominal, transvaginal and transrectal. For women who have sex life, vaginal ultrasound is feasible, which requires bladder emptying and is non-invasive and painless, especially good for emergency, obese patients or observation of deep pelvic organs. However, for women who are not sexually active, abdominal ultrasound or rectal ultrasound is feasible, and only abdominal ultrasound requires holding urine for examination.
Pelvic MRI
MRI can clearly show the difference between tumor signal and normal tissue, so it can accurately determine the size of tumor and metastasis and directly distinguish the vacant blood vessels from enlarged lymph nodes, which is the best imaging diagnosis in preoperative staging of malignant tumors.
Tip: MRI examination is often performed when the patient is already highly suspicious of tumor or when the tumor has been diagnosed, in order to avoid unnecessary waste of medical resources.
Blood test: tumor markers
Tumor markers are protein antigens or bioactive substances produced by abnormal expression of tumor cells, which can be detected in tissues, blood or body fluids and excreta of tumor patients and can assist in tumor diagnosis, differential diagnosis and detection.
CA125 is the most widely used ovarian epithelial tumor marker in the world, with a positive rate of more than 80%. CA125 is widely used in clinical practice to identify pelvic masses, detect the progress of ovarian cancer after treatment and determine the prognosis. CA125 is also sensitive in the diagnosis of cervical cancer and endometrial cancer.
Tips: CA125 can also be elevated during endometriosis, adenomyosis or special infections, so if CA125 is found to be elevated, don’t get discouraged immediately and seek medical consultation for a clear diagnosis.
How to prevent gynecological tumors
Safe Sexual Relationships
Stable and safe sexual relationship is essential for women’s physical and psychological stability.
Unstable relationship not only increases women’s psychological insecurity, but also is an absolute risk factor for women’s health. Cervical cancer is related to sex life, without sex there is no cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a kind of tumor change in the cervical skin caused by HPV (human papilloma virus) infection, and this change takes a long time, about 5 years or even longer, to develop into cervical cancer. And sex, especially high-risk sex, can cause HPV infection of the cervix in women.
But not all people infected with HPV will become cervical cancer. HPV is a large family of viruses with high-risk subtypes and low-risk subtypes. Many of these subtypes are easily cleared with healthy immune function, and the infection rate can be as high as 70% or higher between the ages of 18 and 35, when sexual activity is most active. High-risk sexual behavior often results in persistent HPV infection.
A proper diet
A proper diet refers to both complete nutrition and proper calorie intake.
A reasonable diet should consist of a variety of foods, i.e., cereals and potatoes, mixed legumes, vegetables and fruits, fish, eggs and lean meats, dairy legumes and their products (including nuts), and pure calorie foods. Our daily diet has the highest bias: foods high in vitamins, high in fiber and low in fat.
Therefore, it should be rooted in plant-based foods, which should occupy more than 2/3 of each meal, because various vegetables, fruits, legumes and roughly processed cereals are rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements and dietary fiber, which have a role in regulating physiological activities in the body. In addition, dairy products, fish and other meat can provide the body with high utilization of high-quality protein, appropriate intake can also enhance the body’s resistance.
Reduce or avoid the following foods.
(1). Fried, smoked, baked foods.
(2) burnt, burnt lean meat, fish, eggs, milk, beans and other protein-rich foods
(3) moldy food to avoid drug abuse: sex hormone class
(4) Salt-cured food
(5) Others, such as tobacco, alcohol, betel nut, fern, pesticides, certain food additives, etc.
Tips: It is best to keep the weight maintenance body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 23. [BMI = weight (kg)/height (m2)]. Don’t lose weight blindly and control your weight because low resistance is easy to be attacked by diseases; and don’t eat too much and cause obesity because some metabolic syndromes such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension are absolute high risk factors for endometrial cancer.
Regular physical examination
Regular physical examination is an effective means to protect health and a new way of self-care, which can change from passive medical examination to active examination and from negative treatment to active disease prevention. We believe that seemingly healthy people should also have a physical examination every year or at least once every two years, because regular physical examinations can be early detection of some painless or less obvious symptoms of disease.
Young and middle-aged white-collar workers who are engaged in office work for a long time, entrepreneurs, leaders at all levels, scientific and technical personnel, artists, long-term computer workers and so on, although there is usually no obvious discomfort, but because of their daily work is more intense, fast-paced, as well as more social entertainment, food structure is unreasonable, participate in sports and exercise less, very easy to lead to metabolic disorders in the body, causing obesity, hypertension, diabetes, fatty liver and hyperlipidemia This group of people is very prone to metabolic imbalance, causing obesity, hypertension, diabetes, fatty liver and hyperlipidemia, hidden cardiovascular disease, etc. If this group of people can adhere to the annual physical examination, it is conducive to the early detection of disease and receive treatment.
Many patients’ gynecological tumors are discovered only because of medical checkups. Since the pelvic organs are deeper, the symptoms are not obvious even if the tumor grows, so it is often found for the first time through physical examination. Therefore, regular medical checkups are especially important for women to prevent tumors. Many women are afraid of gynecological examination, and they think that gynecology is private and the discomfort of double examination is obvious, so they refuse to have physical examination. If regular checkups can be done, potential pathogenic factors, early lesions or functional abnormalities can be detected early and the purpose of early detection and early treatment can be achieved.
Tips: Common gynecological checkups: cervical cytology (TCT), endometrial cytology (ECT), vaginal ultrasound, tumor marker test in blood, vaginal secretion test. Most important: gynecological double examination.
Avoid drug abuse
With the development of the information age and the improvement of the quality of life of the population, a wide range of health and beauty drugs are available everywhere. However, from a professional point of view, it is recommended to be careful with medication. Often women’s health care drugs contain hormonal ingredients that interfere with the female endocrine system.
The female endocrine system is very complex, involving several organs and changing all the time. In simple terms, it is like an assembly line, where each department has its own role, and the assigned tasks are still different from day to day, but maintain an orderly routine and coordinated development. If drugs are abused, it is like a sudden disruption of the well-ordered work, making it difficult to continue functioning. This results in endocrine disorders, irregular bleeding, endometrial hyperplasia, etc. And this disorder may take several cycles to fully alleviate; or directly cause organic lesions and hard to heal.
Tips: Be wary of health care products under the banner of “animal”, “natural”, “pure plant”, etc. Often, the hormonal ingredients in these drugs are not extracted from animals or plants to reduce the “efficacy”. The “efficacy” of these drugs is not reduced because they are extracted from animals or plants. Be wary of beauty products or diet pills with unknown ingredients, which often contain “estrogen” and can cause menstrual disorders and endometrial hyperplasia.