Taking Better Care Of My Health

Posted on: 11 December 2015

The endometrium is the lining of your uterus. It typically cannot be seen by your gynecologist during a pelvic exam, but an ultrasound may capture some 3D and/or 2D images of your endometrium. The health of your endometrium is especially important during your child-bearing years because it is where the fertilized egg embeds itself and the growing embryo attaches to you to receive nutrients during its development into a fetus/baby. Unfortunately, like most other things in the human body, the endometrium can develop cancer. Here is how your gynecologist determines if you have endometrial cancer.

Signs and Symptoms

Endometrial cancer is not something doctors screen for because they cannot really test, scrape or see the endometrium in most exams. Therefore, many women are diagnosed with the disease only after they have had it for some time. Signs and symptoms that may alert you to the possibility of endometrial cancer are:

• Bleeding heavily (from your vagina) and not stopping
• No period for a long time and then lots of spotting that is unrelated to medicinal birth control methods
• A large, lumpy feeling in your abdomen and/or an abdomen that is very painful to the touch
• A hard lump found by palpation of your abdomen that is in the vicinity of your uterus
• Significant and rapid weight loss, which is a sign that cells in your body are dying and not being replaced
• Intense cramping feeling or intense pain that lingers

If you have any of these symptoms you should see a gynecologist right away because these signs and symptoms of endometrial cancer only appear when the cancer is in intermediate to advanced stages.

Tests Your Gynecologist Performs to Check for Endometrial Cancer

If your OBGYN suspects that your symptoms are cancer-related, there are some tests he or she can perform to verify the presence of cancer. An ultrasound is one such test. This may either be a transvaginal ultrasound, where a wand is inserted into your vagina and pictures are taken of your uterus through the vaginal wall, or an external ultrasound  where the wand glazes over your abdomen to get pictures of your uterus. A patient with endometrial cancer will have an overly thick lining in the ultrasound pictures. Another test checks to make sure cancer cells have not entered the bloodstream, while a needle biopsy inserted through your abdomen will remove cells from your endometrium and check them for cancer. One other test checks for an increase in progesterone with a marked decrease in other female hormones. If it has been determined that you have this type of cancer, you may begin treatment as soon as possilble.

For more information, talk to a professional like Ogeechee OB-GYN.