What makes your cervix healthy? Here’s how you can check for yourself
Most women do not need to check their cervix, and typically these are facts your gyno can quickly ascertain and explain to you. In addition, your gyno can offer tests and therapies if there is anything out of order. But if you want to understand more about your cervix and what to feel for, here are some factors:
- The length, roughly an inch long, you may be able feel the cervix, but you may have to ask your gyno for a length measurement
- About an inch or a bit less is the normal width, but size really is variable and is more important if it has changed.
- The cervix is made of both collagen and muscle, the amount of collagen vs muscle will determine how firm it feels (muscle feels like your cheek, collagen is more tense, like your nose), and the characteristic feel will change with hormonal fluctuations. A pregnant cervix is much softer (it’s actually blue in color too, but that you won’t feel!)
- The character and the amount of mucus, during ovulation it is clear, like egg white. Discharge from the cervix doesn’t change after sex either.
- The opening is a pin point circle in women who haven’t had children, a bit like a line in those who have had a pregnancy and if you have had prior surgery, or a tear during birth it can be very scared looking
- A cervix shouldn’t be painful, with either touching or sex. However bacterial infections, or a viral infection such as Herpes can cause pain.
- Normal reproduction including induced abortion, a miscarriage or a pregnancy will not typically detract from the health of your cervix. Part of keeping your check up appointments can determine if there was any cervical damage.
- Checking the opening of the cervix, but whatever means is usually safe, but carries a small statistical risk of changing the cervix if performed in pregnancy too often. It is not hard to feel one’s own cervix, but making an accurate diagnosis based on feel can be a bit more challenging. The” feel changing” might mean something, but most often it’s a matter of not being familiar with the range of normal, and what the gyno would check out with a pap or pelvic examination.
- MonaLisa Touch, other CO2 therapy, ThermiVa or other RF therapy of the vaginal canal doesn’t typically reach the cervix, and neither will affect the cervix, but you do need a normal pap smear before getting one of these treatments.
- Not all the mucus coming out of the cervix is generated by the cervix alone, sometimes there is discharge from the interior of the uterus.
- And of course a healthy cervix has a normal pap smear with no HPV infection! Is it time for your annual visit, come see us! Women’s Health Practice.
