CANCER OF THE WOMB – SYMPTOMS
If the cancer is not detected on screening, symptoms may indicate it has been present for a longer time and may have spread beyond the cervix. At operation it is usual to remove the uterus, the tubes and the ovaries.
In some cases, a more extensive operation, removing all the lymph glands in the pelvis as well, is done. Irradiation of the area is often combined with operation and cytotoxic drugs may be used.
Cancer of the body of the uterus is less common and occurs at an older age than cervical cancer. Most women who develop it are postmenopausal.
This is usually accompanied by bleeding or a discharge. Any bleeding from the vagina after the change of life must be investigated. It isn’t always due to cancer but that diagnosis must be excluded before any other is considered.
Promiscuity and multiple pregnancies are not risk factors for this cancer. But the use of oestrogen, the female hormone, is a definite part of its cause. The symptoms of the menopause, the hot flushes, the dry vagina, the lethargy and depression are believed to be due to a reduction in the amount of circulating oestrogen.
Giving oestrogen tablets or injections can relieve these symptoms. This drug, if taken regularly, can prevent osteoporosis or the thinning of the bone which occurs in older women.
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