Prevalence and comparison of cervical cytology abnormalities in postmenopausal and elderly women: A experience from tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: In developing countries, cervical cancer is the most common cancer cause of death among women. Aim: This study was undertaken to evaluate the cervical cytology smears in postmenopausal and elderly age group women, and also to assess the usefulness of cytological screening in elderly women. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, a total of 600 Papanicolaou smears were evaluated and categorized according to Bethesda system for reporting cervical cytology 2014. Of these, 420 smears were obtained from postmenopausal women aged over 45-65 years and 180 were from elderly women aged over 65 years. Results: Overall, the prevalence of epithelial cell abnormality was 5.5%. Epithelial cell abnormalities found in elderly women were 10.5% and in postmenopausal women were 3.3%. Reactive cellular changes associated with inflammation were observed in 72.3% of postmenopausal women and 28.3% of the elderly female; whereas, atrophic changes were noted 61.1% in elderly female and 24.2% in postmenopausal women. Both these findings revealed statistically significant differences ( P Conclusion: The present study showed that postmenopausal and elderly female from rural areas and low socio-economic groups significantly suffered from precancerous lesions of the cervix; even though, the rate seems to be low. Hence, our study concluded that postmenopausal and elderly female should undergo cervical cancer screening to avoid morbidity and mortality.