Cervical Dysplasia & Cervical Cancer Info

My friend in NYC contacted me yesterday about cervical cancer, she knows someone who had dysplasia diagnosed as cancer and was looking for info (knowing that I'm big into women's reproductive health, she asked me to look it up). Anyway, I have a bunch of links you might want to share with your friend:

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From what I know the first sign of a problem is a bad pap smear. The results may show signs of cervical dysplasia. Cervical dysplasia means that there are some irregularities in how the tissue is growing, and this can be affected by hormonal imbalances.

An ob/gyn might then go in and do a colposcopy, which is look at the area with a magnifying device to investigate further. Typically the next step is to do a biopsy. The only concern about the biopsy is if your friend has not had children or desires to have more, that this can sometimes affect a woman's fertility.

It is scary but it is fairly common. It can be a pre-cancerous condition, but it does not mean cancer. I have read of it being successfully treated early on with progesterone supplementation (as per What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause, by John Lee M.D.) She needs to find out how bad it is, I believe they give it some sort of rating.

Here are some links:

Cervical Dysplasia

She should join a group like this one, she'll get better information from women who have been there, and find out if she is being taken proper care of:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/cervical_dysplasia/

The Reversal of Cervical Dysplasia With Vitamin Therapy

Cervical Dysplasia Treatment

Alternative Medicine site: Cervical Dysplasia

Xenoestrogens the cause of Cervical Dysplasia
(this is probably not the cause, though it might contribute)

http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/types/cervical

"The prognosis for patients with cervical cancer is markedly affected by the extent of disease at the time of diagnosis."http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancer.gov/CDR0000062759.html

http://www.cervicalcancercampaign.org/