Cause of Cervical Dysplasia

The cause of cervical dysplasia is not yet clearly understood. Cervical dysplasia is diagnosed if there have been detected some abnormal cellular changes in the cervical tissue. Abnormal changes in the cells mean that cells have unusual appearance when examined under the microscope. The amount of abnormal changes in the cervical tissue determines the grade of cervical dysplasia which, depending on the risk of cervical cancer, may be low grade dysplasia (low risk of cancer) or high grade dysplasia (increased risk of cancer).

The exact cause of cervical dysplasia has not been found, but health care providers can define women who are more likely to develop this condition. Cervical dysplasia has more chances to occur in patients that have history of sexual contacts with numerous partners, sexual activity at an early age, sex with a man with history of cancer of the penis, weakened immune system, smoking, prenatal exposure to DES, genetic predisposition of developing cancerous conditions and some others.

Although scientific researches have investigated the risk factors and natural history of this condition, there are many aspects concerning the cause of cervical dysplasia that need to be explored. It was shown that some viruses such as human papillomavirus and herpes may initiate cell changes leading to cervical dysplasia. According to the statistics, patients who have a persistent cervical infection with these viruses are very likely to develop dysplastic lesions on the cervix. The association of dysplasia with viruses makes the treatment of lesions more complicated because the destruction of lesions does not mean the elimination of virus which may remain in the tissue and cause new dysplastic changes.

The majority of women with cervical dysplasia, especially with high grade dysplasia, are infected by human papillomavirus. Sexual contacts are the main way of transmission of this virus. If human papillomavirus infects cervical cells it is able to change their structure and they begin to develop abnormally. Most cases of high grade cervical dysplasia, and more than 90% of cervical cancers are associated with human papillomavirus infection. Due to these facts, health care providers consider human papillomavirus infection as the primary cause of cervical dysplasia.