Timetable for LEEP With CIN 3?

• By AlisonFaith1212
• Posted October 20, 2009 at 10:43 am
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It sucks, but thats what these doctors make you wait. I also have been diagnosed with CIN 3 and have to wait 5 weeks for treatment.

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• By sparkles1234
• Posted October 20, 2009 at 10:59 am
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I was scheduled to have a LEEP a month after I found out I had CIN II and CIN III. Then about a week before my appointment, I received a letter telling me, "Sorry for the inconvenience, but you need to reschedule because your GYN won't be in that day. " I was like, "What, umm, first off, why did you mail me a letter, instead of calling me? Second, now I have to reschedule and start the waiting all over?"

But, luckily they had an appointment a week after my original appointment. I do understand everyone's frustration, especially when they tell you it needs to be scheduled soon.

Honestly, it's hard to tell how fast CIN III will progress. It's just not easy to wait when we are the ones dealing with this in our bodies! You also have to remember that it may not even turn into cancer, there really is no way of telling if it will or not.

Just try to help your g/f keep her mind off of the "What if's" and help her take things one day at a time. She'll be feeling a range of emotions and it's totally normal.

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• By hopefullady
• Posted October 20, 2009 at 11:19 am
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I was also told I had severe dysplasia, CIN3, on September 30. I was given the option to do a LEEP or cryotherapy. The Dr let me think about it. I took a couple of days to think about it. I also did a post LEEP vs Cryotherapy to help me chose the best option. I eventually went with a LEEP.

Since I had just started my period, the Dr told me it was best doing the procedure right after my period and I should call when I had finished. Two weeks later, October 14, I was scheduled for my LEEP.

My Dr is pretty understanding and I remain positive and hopeful that my treatment will be successful under her care.

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• By corellin
• Posted October 20, 2009 at 11:28 am
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So, here are some statistics on CIN3 --

"CIN 3 has an estimated spontaneous regression rate of 32% to 47%, but if untreated 12% to 36% of cases of CIN 3 progress to invasive cancer [1]."

[1] American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist. ACOG Practice Bulletin number 66, September 2005. Management of abnormal cervical cytology and histology. Obstet Gynecol 2005;106(3):645–64.

Biopsies (the ones you get with the colposcopy) can sometimes completely remove a small lesion or can trigger an immune response in the body that might clear a lesion. Personally, if I had to wait 6 weeks for a procedure, I'd kind of want a pap/HPV test beforehand to make sure the CIN3 lesion was still there, given the high spontaneous clearance rate for CIN3 of 32-47%. Also -- if a lesion is "incident" meaning you just got it and it occurred fairly quickly after initial infection with HPV, then it has a better chance of regressing on its own.

Username -- it's great that you're asking these questions on behalf of your girlfriend. In my view, she now has six weeks to try to make herself as healthy as possible to give herself the best chance of recovering after this procedure. I saw a naturopath who put me on an anti-inflammatory diet, and I know it aided my healing. Plus, some naturopaths have protocols that help with clearance of HPV/CIN.

Once your girlfriend has the LEEP, it's going to be really important that she give herself plenty of time to heal, because the goal of a LEEP is to clear HPV as well as remove the lesion. So about 6-12 months after the LEEP she should be tested for HPV (along with the pap) to make sure the procedure was successful in fully removing the dysplasia.

Some HPV types are more virulent than others, so it might be helpful for her to find out her type prior to the procedure. Also, the two of you are within the age range approved by the FDA for getting the vaccine -- Gardasil or Cervarix. These were just approved for men also up to age 26. There's some recent evidence that the vaccine might protect people who already have one of the vaccine types from spreading the virus to additional body areas -- such as prevent the spread from genital to oral cavity or even from one spot on the cervix to an adjacent, uninfected spot. The vaccine cannot clear cells that are already infected with the virus, but might prevent infection of additional cells. Some of us are a little concerned how the vaccine might interact with our immune systems if we already have the virus and are wondering whether it might prevent our own immune system from clearing the cells that are already infected. But I just wanted to let you know that vaccination might be one strategy for protecting yourselves against addtional infection with any of the vaccine types.

That's probably way more information than you were looking for!

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• By kalalor
• Posted October 20, 2009 at 9:42 pm
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Hey username,

I feel you and your gf's pain. I was diagnosed with CIN III on September 21st and won't be having my LEEP done until next Wednesday (October 28th)....I have asked the same question...isn't that way too long?! Apparently, it's not so horribly long if all of these people are saying it took awhile for their procedure, as well. However, it still feels way to long when you just want something out of you that has a chance of being pre-cancerous and cancerous! Sorry, I wasn't much help. Thanks for all the info Corellin!

Kristi

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• By CowgirlCaz
• Posted October 21, 2009 at 8:52 am
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I too echo everyone's posts about the waiting period. On colposcopy and biopsy they - at that time - diagnosed me with severe dysplasia/CIN III, and was told that I required a LEEP procedure. It was a full month before I got in to have it done (which needless to say did NOT help my anxiety levels much). The waiting is the absolute worst part of the entire process - the leep procedure itself for the majority of women is quite simple. The thing is most doctors apparently aren't too concerned about it progressing inbetween that time because this is a rather slow-growing condition - or so they say. And as sparkle mentions, CIN III, while still a form of severe dysplasia, may not even turn to cancer! We just never know who will progress or who won't.

And I agree 100% with sparkles .... try to keep your gf's mind off of all the "what if's" - that does more harm than good (I am extremely guilty of it myself lol). Try to keep her as positive as possible ... and keep her mind busy on other things. It is so great that you are here asking questions for her. You are obviously a very loving and supportive partner - definitely something that every girl needs throughout these rather difficult, emotional times. They will send the leep biopsy in for pathological testing (to make sure all margins are clear and test to make sure that no further disease went deeper into the cervix), so in knowing this your girlfriend will require your support still - because as I mentioned the waiting and wondering is the worst part no matter how hard you try to stay positive.

Please do let us know how she is doing, and please feel free to ask any further questions - whether about the leep procedure itself, recovery, or anything that may be worrying you. This is a great community of true angels here that give overwhelming support, knowledge and advice to all who come. I'm sure I speak for the majority here in saying that we wish to support and help all we can.

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• By corellin
• Posted October 21, 2009 at 11:22 am
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Oops -- correction to my post above. Cervarix is approved for women, but I think Gardasil is the only one approved for boys/men.

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