Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risks
By Mayo Clinic staffColposcopy is a safe procedure that carries very few risks. Rarely, complications can occur, including:
- Heavy bleeding
- Infection
- Pelvic pain
When to call your doctor
Signs and symptoms that may indicate complications include:
- Bleeding that is heavier than what you typically experience during your period
- Chills
- Fever
- Severe abdominal pain
- Smelly vaginal discharge
Call your doctor if you experience any of these signs and symptoms after your colposcopy.
- Colposcopy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp135.cfm. Accessed March 26, 2009.
- What is colposcopy? American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. http://www.asccp.org/pdfs/patient_edu/colposcopy.pdf. Accessed March 26, 2009.
- Gagne HM. Colposcopy of the vagina and vulva. Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America. 2008;35:659.
- Katz VL, et al. Comprehensive Gynecology. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2007:752.
- Galaal K, et al. Interventions for reducing anxiety in women undergoing colposcopy (review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2007:CD006013.
