CERVICAL CYTOLOGICAL EVALUATION ASSOCIATED WITH INFERTILITY IN RURAL WOMEN OF LUCKNOW, INDIA

ABSTRACT

The camps have been organized for rural cervical cancer screening in the villages of Lucknow which offer valuable platform for the detection of infertility in young women and their cytological examination. The cervical cytology has been studied in the cases of infertility to find out if there is any increase in abnormal cytology and compare them with those obtained in fertile women (controls).Since its inception in May 2013, the camps organized were 186 in number and 5682 women attended these camps. Primary infertility was found in 182 and the secondary infertility in 31 women. The incidence of Squamous intraepithelial lesions of cervix (SIL) was found to be 14.8% in women suffering from primary infertility and 16.1% in the secondary infertility cases and was comparable with SIL rate of 17.4% in the controls. Persistent vaginal infections caused by the poor personal genital hygiene practiced by the rural women may be the reason for a high SIL rate in the fertile women. The SIL rate was seen high in the younger women upto 30 years with pain in lower abdomen and erosion cervix in the primary infertility cases while the high SIL rate was seen in 21- 30 years age groups with parity 2 in secondary infertility cases with no SIL seen with symptoms and clinical lesions. Mostly young women upto 30 years of age complained of infertility and showed high SIL rate. These women were referred to the Hospital of Era Medical College, Lucknow for further investigation and treatment.