Chronic cervicitis

For a lay person:

Chronic cervicitis is long-lasting inflammation of the cervix, the neck of the womb. It may cause discharge, spotting or discomfort, or no symptoms at all, and is sometimes linked to past infections.

For a trained medical person:

Persistent cervical inflammation may follow sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, Mycoplasma genitalium or trichomonas, bacterial vaginosis, or non-infectious irritants and ectropion. Evaluation includes speculum examination, nucleic acid amplification testing for STIs and cervical screening to exclude dysplasia or cancer. Infections are treated with targeted antibiotics and partner treatment; persistent non-infectious cervicitis may be observed or treated with ablation.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Internal Treatment. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: See a doctor for bleeding after sex, bleeding between periods or after menopause, or a new discharge, so that infection and cervical cancer can be ruled out; keep up with cervical screening.