Is cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia symptomatic?

Very little is known about cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) and associated symptomatology. It is often quoted that that CIN is asymptomatic. We wanted to look at whether women with CIN were symptomatic or not. We are not aware of a similar study. We performed a case control study. Our cases were 22 women with abnormal cytology and histology results and our controls were 56 women who had been treated in the recent past and whose smears had returned to normal and those women whose smears had returned to normal spontaneously. Our study shows that there is no evidence that CIN is associated with post-coital bleeding, intermenstrual bleeding or discharge. Women with post-coital bleeding (PCB) are often fast tracked to the colposcopy clinic and women awaiting colposcopy suffer high levels of anxiety. There is no evidence for such practice.