Healing Cervix after D&C?

[catstrees]

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately in July 2010, I decided to have a D&C for a missed miscarriage. Next time, I won't even let travel or work get in the way of my body's plans.

As a fertility awareness practitioner, I feel my cervix several times a cycle. Before I was pregnant, my cervix was smooth, hard and the OS was narrow. When I was pregnant, my cervix became soft, pliable and it was tightly closed shut. Ever since the surgery, my cervix has something on it - a bump, a nick or a scar - I'm not sure what. The OS is wide (even when it should be more narrow). I have noticed that at my peak fertility, I am not getting high quality egg white cervical fluid. I have seen these observations elsewhere on the Internet. I have also seen doctors give a flippant reply.

I am concerned that my cervix has scarring. I wonder what I can do about it. Is the cervix made out of cartilage and so it doesn't rapidly change or heal? I have read that for those who carry successfully to labor but who aren't dilating fast enough, midwives can massage a woman's cervix to break up scar tissue. Even though I am not pregnant yet, do you think I can go ahead and massage my cervix in an attempt to get back the cervix I once knew?

I would appreciate hearing your experiences and would love to read any solutions (herbal?) that you may have.

Thanks!

[Mosaic]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I think it is reasonable to expect that your cervix would have changed due to your pregnancy and D&C, and that these changes may be normal and not a sign of scarring or other damage. Was this your first pregnancy? Did the D&C go without any complications?

I do not think that massaging your cervix would have any benefit. If there is scar tissue present, which we are not sure is the case, my understanding is that massaging it would not make it go away. Messing with your cervix too much could cause infection or potentially additional damage, so I would leave it alone. There are a number of tricks you can use to increase fertile-quality CM... just do a search on this forum and you should get lots of hits.

Also, there is a Pregnancy and Birth loss area where you can discuss these and other concerns with other women who have had similar experiences.

[catstrees]

Hi Mosaic,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, this was my first pregnancy and the D&C had no complications.

Feeling my cervix again, I am think it might be a nabothian cyst, though I have never had these before. I will check with a gynecologist.

[Smilesarefree]

Catstrees, I had leep surgery done about 14 years before I got pregnant that left scarring on my cervix, I wasn't aware of the scarring until about a week before I gave birth.  The ob told me it was nothing to worry about and that my cervix just might need a little help dilating.  When I was in labor I was stuck at 1 cm for a long time until a nurse "massaged" my cervix by running a finger around it, it immediately popped open to 5 cm and then progressed along normally.  At my 6 week post check up my cervix had returned to its normal state - I had it in my head that it wouldn't shrink back because of the scarring for some reason.  So I have no idea if massaging it now could help in the future or not, but it really did not give me any problems.