The most important symptom of endometrial cancer is abnormal bleeding from the vagina, and the single clearest red flag is any bleeding at all after the menopause, even one episode of light pink or brown spotting. Before the menopause, the warning signs are bleeding between periods, periods that have become much heavier than they used to be for you, and bleeding after sex. Most women with these symptoms do not have cancer, but all of them need to be examined and investigated rather than watched, because the test is simple and waiting is what causes harm.
Of all the gynaecological cancers, endometrial cancer is the one that usually tells you it is there. It begins in the lining of the womb, and because that lining sits in a cavity that drains out through the cervix, an abnormal lining tends to bleed, and the bleeding is visible. That is a genuinely useful thing. It means the most important skill for a woman is not interpreting a scan or a blood test, but recognising which bleeding pattern deserves an appointment rather than a wait-and-see approach.
This article sets out what those symptoms actually are, in the order of how much weight they carry: bleeding after the menopause first, then abnormal bleeding before it, then discharge, pain and pressure. It also covers who is more likely to develop endometrial cancer and why, what the investigation involves in practical terms, why a smear test does not look for this cancer at all, and how endometrial hyperplasia fits in. The tone throughout is deliberately calm. Most women who come to a clinic with these symptoms turn out to have something benign, and nothing here is meant to frighten you into silence about a symptom you have been ignoring.
What Endometrial Cancer Is, and Why It Usually Gives a Warning Sign
Endometrial cancer is a cancer that starts in the endometrium, the inner lining of the womb. It is the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs in most high-income countries, and the clear majority of women who develop it are past the menopause, most often diagnosed in their sixties. It is not the same thing as cervical cancer, which starts at the neck of the womb and is caused by persistent HPV infection, and it is not the same as the much rarer uterine sarcomas, which arise in the muscle wall rather than the lining.
The reason symptoms appear comparatively early is purely anatomical. The endometrium is a shedding, blood-rich tissue lining a cavity with an exit. When it becomes abnormal, it bleeds, and that blood has somewhere to go. Ovarian cancer, by contrast, grows in a space where it can cause only vague bloating and fullness for a long time. So with endometrial cancer the question is almost never "are there symptoms?" but "was the symptom acted on?"
A note on the names
You will see several different names for the same territory, and the overlap causes confusion. "Womb cancer" and "uterine cancer" are the everyday terms, and because the large majority of cancers of the womb begin in the lining, those words are often used as though they meant endometrial cancer. Strictly, uterine cancer covers anything arising in the womb, including the uncommon sarcomas of the muscle wall, while endometrial cancer refers specifically to the lining. If a leaflet or a report uses a different word from the one your doctor used, it is worth asking which is meant rather than assuming the diagnosis has changed.
Two different biological routes
It helps to know that endometrial cancer is not one single disease. The common type, endometrioid cancer, is driven by oestrogen acting on the lining over years without enough progesterone to oppose it. This type is usually preceded by a thickened lining and often by endometrial hyperplasia, and it is the type connected to the risk factors most people have heard about, such as weight and irregular ovulation.
A less common group, including serous and clear cell cancers, is not oestrogen-driven. These tend to occur in older women, and they can arise in a lining that is thin rather than thick. That single fact matters more than it sounds, because it is the reason a reassuring endometrial thickness measurement does not end the conversation if bleeding continues. Persistent bleeding is investigated on its own merits, whatever the scan showed.
Bleeding After the Menopause: The Single Most Important Red Flag
Any bleeding from the vagina after the menopause needs to be assessed, regardless of how light it is, how briefly it lasted, or how long ago it happened. There is no amount small enough to ignore. This is the one sentence in this article I would most like you to remember.
By menopause I mean twelve consecutive months with no periods at all. After that point, the lining should be quiet. So a single episode of pink staining on the paper, a brown smudge on underwear, a teaspoon of old-looking blood, or bleeding only after sex all count as postmenopausal bleeding and all deserve the same pathway. Many women wait to see whether the bleeding will happen again. That instinct is understandable, but it works against you: a one-off episode is investigated exactly like a recurrent one.
- Fresh red bleeding, however briefly
- Pink, brown or rust-coloured staining or spotting
- Watery discharge that is tinged with blood
- Bleeding only after intercourse
- Bleeding that happened once, months ago, and never returned
Most causes are not cancer
It is worth being straightforward about the odds, because they are reassuring. Only a minority of women with postmenopausal bleeding turn out to have endometrial cancer, on the order of one in ten. The commonest explanation is atrophy: after the menopause, falling oestrogen makes the lining of the vagina and the endometrium thin, dry and fragile, so it bleeds with minimal provocation. Benign endometrial or cervical polyps, fibroids, infection, inflammation of the vulva or vagina, and bleeding from the urinary tract or bowel mistaken for vaginal bleeding also account for a large share. The point of investigating is not that cancer is likely. It is that the other nine explanations cannot be told apart from the tenth by listening to the story alone.
Bleeding on hormone replacement therapy
HRT complicates the picture, so be specific with your doctor about which type you take and when the bleeding happened. On sequential HRT, a regular monthly withdrawal bleed is expected and is not a red flag. On continuous combined HRT, unpredictable light bleeding in the first three to six months is common as the lining settles. What is not expected, and what should be assessed, is bleeding that starts for the first time after you have been on continuous combined HRT for six months or more, bleeding that becomes heavier or more persistent, or bleeding after a settled period of no bleeding at all. Vaginal oestrogen used for local dryness is a very low dose, and new bleeding while using it is still investigated rather than attributed to the treatment. If you are weighing up hormone therapy more generally, our overview of menopause symptoms and treatment options explains how these regimens differ and why the progestogen component exists.
Abnormal Bleeding Before the Menopause: What Actually Counts
Before the menopause the signal is noisier, because cycles genuinely do change with age. The pattern that matters is a change from your own baseline that persists, rather than a single odd month. Endometrial cancer is less common in this age group, but it is not rare enough to dismiss, particularly in women with the risk factors described further down.
The specific patterns worth an appointment are bleeding between periods, bleeding after sex, periods that have become distinctly heavier or longer than they used to be for you, bleeding that drags on for weeks, and cycles that have become erratic without an explanation. Bleeding heavy enough to soak through protection hourly, to pass large clots repeatedly, or to make you breathless and lightheaded needs attention promptly, both for the cause and for the resulting anaemia.
Bleeding while using contraception
Contraception is a common source of uncertainty here, and it cuts both ways. Irregular spotting is expected in the first months after a progestogen implant or injection, in the settling-in period after an intrauterine device is fitted, and after missed or late pills, and it usually quietens down on its own. What is not expected is bleeding that begins after a long settled stretch on the same method, bleeding that becomes progressively heavier, or bleeding accompanied by pain, fever or an offensive discharge. In those situations the method is a possible explanation rather than a proven one, and the cervix and lining still need to be looked at before the bleeding is attributed to it.
The perimenopause trap
In the years before periods stop, cycles shorten, lengthen, skip and vary in heaviness. This is normal physiology, and most of it is exactly what it looks like. The trap is using "it must be the perimenopause" to explain away bleeding that is actually abnormal, because the perimenopause is also the stage when ovulation becomes unreliable, and unreliable ovulation means stretches of oestrogen exposure without the progesterone that normally keeps the lining in check. The hormonal chaos and the risk mechanism are the same thing. Our guide to the causes of irregular periods goes through the benign explanations in more detail, but it does not replace an examination.
Age and risk change the threshold
In practice, two things lower the threshold for sampling the lining rather than simply treating the bleeding. The first is age: from around 45 onwards, abnormal uterine bleeding is usually investigated with endometrial sampling as a matter of routine. The second is risk profile. Under 45, I would still sample if there is significant obesity, a history of long-standing anovulation or polycystic ovary syndrome, exposure to oestrogen without a progestogen, a family history suggesting Lynch syndrome, or bleeding that has not settled despite reasonable medical treatment. Bleeding that fails to respond to treatment is itself a reason to look, not a reason to try the next tablet.
Other Symptoms: Discharge, Pelvic Pain and Pressure
A minority of women have no frank bleeding and instead notice a change in discharge. After the menopause, a new persistent watery discharge, especially if it is pink, brown, blood-streaked or has an unpleasant smell, should be assessed in the same way as bleeding. It is easy to attribute to dryness or to a thrush infection that never quite cleared, and it is one of the symptoms most often explained away for months.
Before the menopause, discharge changes are usually infective or hormonal rather than sinister, and our guide to the types of vaginal discharge covers what each pattern typically means. Two features shift a discharge from routine to worth investigating: blood in it, and persistence after the menopause despite treatment.
Pain, pressure and the less specific symptoms
Pelvic or lower abdominal pain, a dragging or cramping sensation, low back pain, pain during sex, bloating, a feeling of pressure, needing to pass urine more often, or a change in bowel habit can all occur. These matter, but they are weaker signals in two respects. They are extremely common for benign reasons, including fibroids, adenomyosis, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, constipation and bladder irritation. And when they are caused by endometrial cancer, they tend to appear later than bleeding does, because they usually reflect a womb that has enlarged or disease that has extended beyond the lining.
Weight loss you did not intend, loss of appetite, and persistent fatigue are general cancer symptoms rather than specific ones. They should prompt a review, but they are not how endometrial cancer typically introduces itself.
Can you have it without any bleeding?
Rarely, yes. A small number of women are found to have endometrial cancer when a thickened lining or fluid in the uterine cavity is seen on a scan done for another reason, or when abnormal glandular cells show up on cervical cytology. Occasionally the cervix is narrowed after the menopause and blood or fluid collects inside the womb instead of draining, producing cramping pain and pressure rather than visible bleeding. These situations are the exception. The absence of bleeding is genuinely reassuring in most cases, but it is not the same as a guarantee, which is why new persistent pelvic symptoms in a postmenopausal woman still deserve an examination.
Symptoms That Usually Turn Out to Be Something Else
Since the whole point of this article is to get women assessed rather than worried, it is worth naming what these symptoms usually are. In clinical practice, abnormal bleeding is far more often explained by one of the following.
Before the menopause
Fibroids are the commonest structural cause of heavy periods, and submucosal fibroids that bulge into the cavity cause the heaviest bleeding. Endometrial and cervical polyps cause bleeding between periods and after sex. Adenomyosis, where endometrial tissue grows into the muscle wall, causes heavy, painful periods and a bulky tender womb. Anovulatory cycles, often in the context of polycystic ovary syndrome, thyroid disease, significant weight change, stress or extremes of reproductive age, cause unpredictable bleeding. Then there are the practical explanations: missed contraceptive pills, the first months after an intrauterine device is fitted, a contraceptive implant or injection, bleeding disorders such as von Willebrand disease that have been present since the first period, and anticoagulant medication.
After the menopause
The postmenopausal causes are set out above: atrophy first, then polyps, with infection, vulval skin conditions, a cervical ectropion, prolapse with surface ulceration and bleeding from the bowel or urethra making up the remainder.
Why this list does not let you off the hook
Every condition above can produce bleeding that is indistinguishable, from the outside, from bleeding caused by cancer. There is no pattern of postmenopausal bleeding that is characteristically benign, and no combination of colour, volume and timing that reliably marks a benign cause. Postmenopausal bleeding should therefore lead to an examination and, in almost all cases, a scan; reassurance on the basis of the story alone is not enough, and it is reasonable to ask for the lining to be assessed. The purpose of knowing the benign causes is to stop you lying awake, not to give you a reason to skip the appointment.
Risk Factors: Why Oestrogen Without Progesterone Matters
Almost every well-established risk factor for the common type of endometrial cancer makes sense through one idea: the lining is exposed to oestrogen over a long period without enough progesterone to oppose it. Oestrogen tells the endometrium to grow. Progesterone, produced after ovulation, tells it to mature and then shed. Remove the second half of that cycle and the lining keeps building.
- Excess body weight. Fat tissue converts adrenal androgens into oestrogen, so after the menopause, when the ovaries have stopped, body fat becomes the main source of oestrogen exposure. This is the strongest modifiable risk factor for endometrial cancer, and the relationship strengthens as body mass index rises.
- Long-standing anovulation, including polycystic ovary syndrome. Cycles without ovulation mean months of oestrogen with no progesterone phase. Years of very infrequent periods matter more than occasional irregularity.
- Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. These travel with excess weight but appear to add risk in their own right.
- Early first period and late menopause. Both lengthen the total number of years the lining is cycling.
- Never having been pregnant. Pregnancy is a prolonged, progesterone-dominant state, and breastfeeding suppresses ovulation so the lining is not exposed to cycling oestrogen.
- Oestrogen-only hormone therapy in a woman who still has her womb. This is precisely why a progestogen, or a progestogen-releasing intrauterine system, is included in HRT for any woman with a uterus.
- Tamoxifen. Used in breast cancer, it blocks oestrogen in breast tissue but has a mild oestrogen-like effect on the endometrium in postmenopausal women.
- Previous endometrial hyperplasia, and rarely an oestrogen-secreting ovarian tumour.
- Age itself, which is the risk factor nobody can modify.
What appears to lower risk
Combined hormonal contraception used over years is associated with a reduced risk that persists long after stopping, and a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system keeps the lining thin for the same reason. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, regular physical activity and avoiding weight gain all point in the protective direction. None of this is a guarantee against the disease, and none of it is a reason to ignore bleeding if you have it.
A word about tamoxifen specifically
If you are taking tamoxifen, report any vaginal bleeding, spotting or new discharge promptly, because the threshold for investigating is lower in this group. What is not recommended is routine scanning or routine biopsy of women on tamoxifen who have no symptoms. The lining often looks thickened and irregular on ultrasound as a direct effect of the drug, so scanning asymptomatic women generates a great deal of worry and a great many unnecessary procedures without a clear benefit. Symptom awareness is the strategy here, not surveillance.
Lynch Syndrome and Family History
A small but important proportion of endometrial cancers occur in women with Lynch syndrome, an inherited condition caused by a fault in one of the DNA mismatch repair genes. It increases the lifetime risk of bowel cancer and endometrial cancer substantially, and ovarian and some other cancers to a lesser degree. Women with Lynch syndrome tend to develop endometrial cancer younger than average, sometimes before the menopause, which is one reason I take family history seriously in a woman in her thirties or forties with persistent abnormal bleeding.
What should make you mention your family history
Tell your doctor if close relatives have had bowel, womb, ovarian, stomach, small bowel, urinary tract or pancreatic cancer, particularly if any of them were diagnosed under 50, if the same person had more than one of these cancers, or if the same pattern appears across more than one generation. One relative with bowel cancer in their eighties is not the same signal as a mother diagnosed at 44 and an aunt with womb cancer at 48.
How it is handled
In most health systems, endometrial and bowel cancers are now tested for mismatch repair abnormalities as a routine part of examining the tissue, which can be the first clue that leads a family to diagnosis. If Lynch syndrome is suspected, referral to a clinical genetics service allows proper counselling and, if the woman chooses, a blood test for the specific gene variant. Confirmed Lynch syndrome changes management in concrete ways: regular colonoscopy from a young age, a low threshold for investigating any abnormal bleeding, discussion of risk-reducing removal of the womb and ovaries once a woman has completed her family, and consideration of aspirin for bowel cancer risk. These are decisions made with a specialist team over time, not in a single appointment.
It is worth saying plainly that most women with endometrial cancer have no family history of it at all. Family history raises the stakes when it is present; its absence does not remove the need to investigate symptoms.
How It Is Investigated: Ultrasound, Biopsy and Hysteroscopy
The investigation is quicker and less daunting than most women expect, and in many cases it is completed in one visit. It follows a logical sequence: look at the lining, then sample it if there is any doubt, then look directly inside the cavity if the sample is inadequate or the bleeding continues.
- History and examination, including a speculum examination of the cervix and vagina to find bleeding that is not coming from the womb at all
- Transvaginal ultrasound to measure endometrial thickness and look at the cavity, ovaries and muscle wall
- Endometrial biopsy, usually taken in the clinic with a fine suction catheter
- Hysteroscopy with directed biopsy if the sample was insufficient, the scan was abnormal, or bleeding persists
- MRI or CT only after a cancer is confirmed, to establish its extent before treatment
Transvaginal ultrasound and endometrial thickness
In a postmenopausal woman with bleeding, a thin endometrium is reassuring, and a commonly used threshold is 4 mm or less. Above that, the lining is sampled. The scan also shows polyps, fibroids, fluid in the cavity and the appearance of the ovaries, so it does more than produce one number. What the number cannot do is settle the question in every situation: thickness thresholds do not apply before the menopause, where the lining changes thickness across the cycle, and they are unreliable in women taking tamoxifen or using HRT. As noted earlier, the non-oestrogen-driven cancers can occur in a thin lining. For what the measurement means in different circumstances, see our explanation of normal endometrial thickness.
The biopsy itself
An endometrial biopsy is an outpatient procedure that takes a few minutes. A narrow flexible tube is passed through the cervix and a small sample of lining is drawn into it. Most women feel period-like cramping during the sampling and for a short time afterwards, sometimes strongly, with light spotting for a day or two. Taking a simple anti-inflammatory painkiller an hour beforehand helps, and it is reasonable to ask for local anaesthetic to the cervix. Our page on what to expect from an endometrial biopsy goes through the practical detail, including why it is sometimes not possible to pass the tube.
Sometimes the sample comes back as insufficient for assessment, particularly in a postmenopausal woman with a thin lining. That is a technical result, not a negative one, and it does not mean the lining is normal. If bleeding continues after any biopsy result, the lining needs to be looked at directly.
Hysteroscopy
Hysteroscopy means passing a fine telescope through the cervix to see inside the cavity, usually with saline or gas to open it up. It can be done in a clinic room while you are awake, or under sedation or general anaesthetic, and that choice should be discussed rather than assumed. Its advantage over a blind biopsy is that the operator can see a focal lesion and sample exactly that spot, and can remove a polyp in the same sitting. Dilatation and curettage, the older operation of scraping the lining under anaesthetic, has largely been replaced by targeted hysteroscopic sampling.
Is There a Screening Test? Does a Smear Detect It?
There is no screening test for endometrial cancer, and a cervical smear is not one. This is one of the most common misunderstandings about cervical screening, and it leads women with real symptoms to reassure themselves wrongly.
Cervical screening, whether by cytology or by primary HPV testing, samples cells from the surface of the cervix in order to find changes caused by persistent HPV infection. It is looking at a different organ, for a different cancer, with a different cause. A completely normal, up-to-date smear tells you nothing at all about the lining of your womb. If you have postmenopausal bleeding and a normal smear from last month, you still need an ultrasound and a biopsy.
The one indirect connection
Occasionally cervical cytology reports atypical glandular cells. Glandular cells can come from the cervical canal or from the endometrium, so this result sometimes prompts assessment of the womb lining as well as the cervix. It is an incidental finding rather than a screening pathway, and it is not sensitive enough to be used as one. Our guide to abnormal smear results explains what the various categories mean.
Why there is no population screening programme
Screening a whole population requires a test that finds disease early in people without symptoms, without causing excessive harm to the many who do not have it. Ultrasound and endometrial biopsy do not meet that standard for endometrial cancer in average-risk women: scanning healthy postmenopausal women finds a great many thickened linings that turn out to be nothing, each of which leads to an invasive procedure. Since this cancer announces itself with bleeding in the large majority of cases, prompt investigation of that symptom achieves what a screening programme would be trying to achieve.
The exception is women at high inherited risk, principally those with Lynch syndrome, where specialist teams discuss individualised surveillance of the endometrium alongside the option of risk-reducing surgery. That is a specialist conversation, not a general recommendation.
Endometrial Hyperplasia: The Step Before Cancer
Endometrial hyperplasia means the lining of the womb has become abnormally thickened, with more glands crowded together than there should be. It is not cancer. It matters because it sits on the pathway to the common oestrogen-driven type of endometrial cancer, and because it is treatable once found. It typically presents with exactly the same symptoms: heavy periods, bleeding between periods, or bleeding after the menopause.
The distinction that changes everything
Pathologists divide hyperplasia into two groups, and the difference is not a technicality.
Hyperplasia without atypia means the glands are crowded but the cells themselves still look normal. The risk of this progressing to cancer is low, and the first move is usually to remove the drive behind it: addressing excess body weight, stopping unopposed oestrogen, and treating anovulation. Progestogen treatment is the recommended first-line management, delivered either as a progestogen-releasing intrauterine system or as oral progestogen, usually continued for at least six months, with repeat sampling at intervals. Treatment is generally considered complete after two consecutive normal biopsies. A levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system is often preferred because it delivers the hormone directly to the lining with fewer systemic effects.
Atypical hyperplasia, also reported as endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia, means the cells themselves look abnormal. The risk of progression is substantially higher, and a proportion of women found to have atypical hyperplasia on a biopsy are found to have an early cancer alongside it when the womb is examined in full. For this reason, removal of the womb is usually recommended for women who have completed their families, with removal of the ovaries and tubes normally advised after the menopause and discussed individually before it. For a woman who wants to preserve fertility, or who is not fit for surgery, progestogen treatment with close repeated sampling is a recognised alternative, managed by a specialist team with a clear plan for how long to continue and when to reconsider.
Why both diagnoses deserve follow-up
Hyperplasia is a condition of the whole lining and can recur once treatment stops, particularly if the underlying driver has not changed. That is why follow-up biopsies are arranged rather than a single all-clear, and why weight, ovulation and hormone therapy are revisited as part of treatment rather than treated as separate issues. Benign polyps and fibroids frequently coexist, so finding one does not mean the lining has been assessed.
When to Seek Assessment Without Waiting
Make an appointment, rather than waiting to see what happens next, if any of the following applies.
- Any vaginal bleeding or spotting after the menopause, of any amount, even once, even months ago
- Any new bleeding while taking tamoxifen
- New bleeding on continuous combined HRT after six months of settled treatment, or bleeding that becomes heavier or more persistent on any HRT regimen
- A new, persistent watery, pink or blood-tinged discharge after the menopause
- Bleeding between periods, or after sex, that has happened more than once
- Periods that have become clearly heavier, longer or more erratic than your own normal, particularly from your mid-forties onwards
- Abnormal bleeding that has not settled despite medical treatment
- Persistent new pelvic or low back pain, pressure or bloating with a change in bleeding pattern
Seek urgent, same-day care for bleeding heavy enough to soak through a pad every hour, or bleeding with dizziness, fainting, breathlessness, a racing heart, severe pain or fever.
The things that make women wait, and why none of them hold
Do not wait because the bleeding stopped. A single episode is investigated the same way. Do not wait because you have a smear booked; it does not look at the womb lining. Do not wait until you have lost weight first, even though weight is genuinely relevant to the risk. Do not assume it must be the HRT, the perimenopause, dryness or a bit of thrush, because those are conclusions reached after an examination, not before one. Do not stop a prescribed anticoagulant on your own because you think it is causing the bleeding; report the bleeding and let the person who prescribed it advise.
When you come, it helps to bring a simple record: when the bleeding happened, how much, what colour, whether it was related to sex, your last period or menopause date, every hormone preparation you use including vaginal creams, your other medication, and the family history described above. It makes the consultation faster and the plan clearer.
What Happens If a Diagnosis Is Made
If a biopsy shows endometrial cancer, the next step is to establish how far it extends, because that determines treatment. This usually involves imaging, most often MRI of the pelvis and sometimes CT of the chest and abdomen, along with blood tests and an assessment of general fitness for surgery. The case is then discussed by a multidisciplinary team of gynaecological oncologists, pathologists, radiologists and oncologists, which is how a plan is arrived at rather than by one clinician alone.
For most women the main treatment is surgery to remove the womb, cervix, tubes and ovaries. Where appropriate this is done through keyhole or vaginal approaches rather than a large abdominal incision, and lymph nodes may be assessed, often by identifying the first draining node rather than removing all of them. Whether anything further is needed afterwards depends on the stage, the grade, the cell type and, increasingly, on molecular features of the tumour that help predict how it is likely to behave. Radiotherapy to the pelvis or the top of the vagina, chemotherapy, or a combination may be recommended for some women and not for others. For women who cannot have surgery, or who wish to preserve fertility in carefully selected early low-grade cases, hormonal treatment with close monitoring is a recognised option.
Follow-up afterwards
Follow-up is largely symptom-based rather than scan-based. Women are usually seen for a period of years and are asked to report new vaginal bleeding, pelvic or leg symptoms between appointments rather than waiting for the next one, because most recurrences come to light through symptoms. Where the ovaries have been removed before the natural menopause, the resulting sudden menopause deserves its own discussion, including whether hormone therapy is appropriate in that particular situation. Support for pelvic floor, bladder, bowel and sexual function, and for lymphoedema if lymph nodes were removed, exists in most services and is worth asking for by name rather than waiting to be offered it.
Questions worth asking
What type and grade is it, and what does the stage mean in my case? Which operation is proposed, by which approach, and what is the recovery like? Will my ovaries be removed, and if I am not yet menopausal, what are the implications and can hormone therapy be considered? Will the tissue be tested for mismatch repair abnormalities, and does my family need to know anything? Is any treatment needed after surgery, and when would that decision be made? What are the long-term effects on bladder, bowel, sexual function and lymphoedema, and who will help me with them?
What I would not do is go looking for numbers online. Outcome figures are averages drawn from large groups with different disease from yours, they date quickly as treatment changes, and they rarely tell an individual woman what she actually needs to know. The specific questions above, asked of the team who have your results in front of them, will serve you far better.
References
The following current and independent health sources were used in preparing this article.
- NHS. Womb (uterus) cancer: Symptoms
- MedlinePlus (US National Library of Medicine). Uterine Cancer
- NICE. Suspected cancer: recognition and referral (NG12)
