Cervical Cytology in Normal Rural Women Without Gynecological Symptoms and Clinical Lesions of Cervix

 Majority of asymptomatic women in rural areas refuse Pap smear examination on the pretext that they have no gynecological problems. After intense persuasion and motivation, few of such individuals underwent a cytological examination. Some of these women also revealed healthy cervices on clinical examination. Cytological findings obtained from healthy women with no gynecological symptoms and clinical lesions were presented in the current paper.

 In the present study, the normal women were selected from the Rural Cervical Cancer Screening Program which is in progress in the villages of three blocks of West Lucknow. During seven years (from May to February 2020), a total of 2949 women were cytologically examined of which 848 were normal with no gynecological symptoms and had healthy cervices.

 Cytology results of 848 normal women revealed squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) of the cervix in 123 (14.5%), while the squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) rate was 17.1% in 2015 symptomatic subjects; however, the difference was statically insignificant. The SIL rate in the normal women showed rise with increase in age and parity but the difference in the SIL rate in the different age and parity groups was statically insignificant. A high SIL rate was also observed with illiteracy (15.8%) which may be due to poor personal genital hygiene.

 A high SIL rate in the 848 normal women emphasizes the need for cytological screening even in the absence of gynecological symptoms and clinical lesions of the cervix to rule out any advent of pre-malignancy. Adequate treatment in time prevents any progression of the lesion to malignancy.