I am 25 years old. After having an abnormal pap showing high grade abnormal cells and positive for HPV, my doctor had me come in for a colposcopy and biopsy so that they could further test the abnormal cells in my cervix.
I just got the results today, which show severe dysplasia... or CIN III.
This means that all the layers of my cells are abnormal, but that the "pre-cancer" has not spread beyond the membrane. I am happy that I do not have cancer yet, though knowing how close it could be has been very emotional and scary and the thought of not having children is equally as upsetting!!
I have to have either a LEEP procedure which my doc seems to be leaning toward for me, or a cone biopsy. I am leaning toward choosing the LEEP, as it seems less invasive with quicker recovery, but I am wondering which is more effective? My doctor says they are both about as effective. She thinks I should be fine with the LEEP procedure. I asked her if there could be complications with getting pregnant and bearing children, and she said there is some data to suggest that women who have these procedures have increased risk of miscarriages, and premature birth... but that it is easy to monitor and prevent in the early months of pregnancy with regular visits, and watching closely. She is pretty reassuring...but I wanted to do more research before making my decision.
Is one of these procedures more effective than the other? Is one more likely associated with complications during child birth? I read somewhere that having the LEEP procedure done more than once can limit your ability to have children... is this true? What are the chances that I would need to have more than one?
If you have any of the answers to these questions I would greatly appreciate the input!