What is the procedure?
1. You should sign a consent forum before the procedure begins after discussing it with your doctor.
2. You will get undressed from the waist down , put on a hospital gown and settle on the examination chair in a dorsal lithotomy position.
3. Your doctor will start by inspecting your external genital organs (vulva , vagina) for any apparent abnormal lesions before the beginning of the examination.
4. The doctor or nurse will open your cervix using a device called the speculum that separates the walls of your vagina keeping it open to inspect the cervix just like the one used before in obtaining your pap smear .
5. The doctor will apply a cleaning solution like vinegar (acetic acid) to clear out the mucus secretions in the cervix and help him visualize abnormal cells by the naked eye as these cells turn into white patches on the cervix after washing the tissue with the acetic acid solution .
6. The colposcopy will be illuminated and used by your doctor to inspect the cervix it will not enter your vagina but he may use a cotton swab to manipulate the cervix in order to see the inner margins better and assess the consistency of the lesion .
7. Another solution may be added like iodine to perform what is known as a (Schiller’s test )that helps identify the non staining abnormal areas of the cervix as the normally mature squamous epithelial cells contain abundant glycogen that stains dark brown with iodine while dysplastic ones don’t contain the same amount of glycogen needed to take the color of the iodine dye so any cell that doesn’t take the stain is considered to be an abnormal dysplastic cell.
8. If you need a biopsy the doctor will tell you in the same setting and take it using the different techniques according to the type of biopsy needed to obtain a proper sample of the lesion.
9. It should take up to 15-30 minutes to finish the entire
10. Then your biopsy will be taken to the pathology lab for further tests to be performed on the sample to get to a specific diagnosis.
11. the results would take up to 1-4 weeks in average till you receive them and discuss them with your doctor and go through the different modalities of treatment.
