Patient's question:
Under what circumstances do women get cervical erosion? How can you detect cervical erosion early? Additional question 1: How can you detect cervical erosion early?Doctor's answer:
Hello: The formation of cervical erosion may be due to the following two reasons: ① The so-called congenital erosion: In the later stage of embryonic development, both the vagina and the vaginal part of the cervix are covered with transitional epithelium. By the sixth month, this epithelium extends into the cervical canal, and by full term, the columnar epithelium of the cervical canal mucosa grows outward, beyond the external os of the cervix. About 1/3 of newborn girls maintain this state, which is similar in appearance to adult inflammatory cervical erosion, hence the term "congenital cervical erosion." However, it generally persists for only a few days and naturally resolves after the estrogen levels from the mother decline. ② Cervical erosion caused by the proliferation of columnar epithelium of the cervical endometrium, which extends beyond the external os of the cervix. It appears similar to inflammatory cervical erosion but occurs only during the fertile age of ovary function and not during puberty or after menopause. It is more common during pregnancy and tends to resolve spontaneously after childbirth. Although patients may experience an increase in leukorrhea, it is clean mucus. Pathological examination shows no inflammatory cell infiltration under the columnar epithelium or only a few lymphocytes, and it is characterized by the papillary and glandular erosion tissue patterns mentioned earlier. All these phenomena suggest that the formation of this type of erosion may be due to an imbalance in sex hormone levels rather than inflammation. Inflammation may only occur secondarily on the basis of erosion, but this is merely a consequence rather than the cause of the erosion. Erosion may be due to the effects of estrogen, but some animal experiments have found that injecting testosterone leads to changes similar to human glandular erosion. Therefore, it is believed that androgens can cause cervical epithelium to change into mucous and tend to form glands, while the role of progesterone in this aspect is similar to that of androgens.