In this article, we will talk about a fairly serious disease, increasingly occurring among young patients around the world - cervicitis. We will consider the main causes of the development of this disease, tell about the types of cervicitis in women, the methods of diagnosis and treatment of the disease, as well as talk about preventive measures that can effectively support women's health.
Cervicitis: Causes
Cervicitis is the inflammation of the cervix, which develops as a result of infectious infection (streptococci, chlamydia, enterococci, staphylococcus, E. coli, Trichomonas, gonococci, viral infections - all this may become the beginning of the development of cervicitis).
Various functional, post-traumatic and post-operative disorders may also contribute to the development of the disease: irritation of the cervical tissues, non-closed after birth gaps in the perineum and cervix, inflammatory processes of the genital organs or their omission, general weakness of the organism accompanying somatic diseases of various types.
Symptoms of cervicitis
Depending on the stage of the disease and its type, the symptoms of cervicitis in women can vary significantly. For example, in the case of acute cervicitis, mild pains in the lower segments of the abdomen are often observed, mucopurulent or purulent discharge from the vagina, discomfort, discomfort in the vagina, itching occurs. Upon examination, the gynecologist discovers swelling of the mucous tissues of the cervix (vaginal part), redness.
In the case of subacute cervicitis, the symptoms are similar, but their severity is much weaker.
In chronic cervicitis, purulent or purulent-mucous discharge from the genital organs (very weak), small swelling and redness of the uterine tissues are observed. In the case of a prolonged absence of adequate treatment, the cervical tissues thicken, erosion is very often formed.
Most often, the development of cervicitis is accompanied by other diseases of the reproductive system: vaginitis, cervical pseudo erosion, vulvitis, etc. It is also possible to develop cervicitis after childbirth (in case of infection of ancestral ruptures of uterine tissues), when installing an intrauterine device, abortions.
Diagnosis of cervicitis is aimed at finding all the existing causes of inflammation and related diseases. For diagnosis, most commonly used are:
- Examination of the cervical tissues with the help of a colposcope and vaginal mirrors;
- laboratory studies of cervical secretions for infection.
Classification of cervicitis
Depending on the infection that caused the disease, several types of cervicitis are distinguished:
- purulent cervicitis is characterized by accumulation in the cervical canal of a large number of purulent discharge. This disease is most often accompanied by gonorrhea;
- bacterial cervicitis is caused by a dysbacteriosis or bacterial infection;
- Chlamydia cervicitis develops on the background of infection with chlamydia;
- Candida cervicitis is an inflammation of the uterine tissues as a result of the destructive action of fungi of the genus Candida;
- ureplasma cervicitis develops in parallel with ureplasmosis;
- viral cervicitis - inflammation caused by a viral infection (most commonly papillomavirus, herpes or HIV).
Treatment of cervicitis
The therapeutic measures aimed at treating the disease vary significantly depending on the underlying causes of the disease.
With subacute and acute cervicitis, douching with a solution of lactic acid or decoction of chamomile is often prescribed. In viral cervicitis, antiviral drugs that are adequate to the type of virus found in the genital tissues are used. In bacterial cervicitis, antibiotics or sulfonamides are effective; in chlamydia, tadwid, doxycycline, and tetracycline are shown. In cervicitis caused by anaerobic bacteria, metronidazole treatment gives good results.
Since cervicitis is often accompanied by sexually transmitted infections, most often all female partners are also treated, even if they have no obvious symptoms.