• Persistent vaginal discharge, which may be pale, watery, pink, brown, blood streaked, or dark and foul-smelling
• Abnormal vaginal bleeding, especially between menstrual periods, after intercourse or douching, and after menopause, which gradually becomes heavier and longer

Symptoms of advanced cervical cancer may include:

• Loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue
• Pelvic, back, or leg pain
• Leaking of urine or feces from the vagina
• Bone fracture

Signs and Tests:

Invasive cervical cancer often appears as an irregular fleshy growth, often firm or hard, that tends to bleed easily. But even on pelvic examination by a doctor, pre-cancers and even early cancers of the cervix are often not visible to the naked eye.

Special tests are necessary to diagnose cervical pre-cancers and cancers:

• Pap smears screen for -- but do not diagnose -- cervical pre-cancers and cancers
• Pap smears that are collected or read by special methods (ThinPrep, AutoPap, PapNet) are now available that can be useful in certain situations or in laboratories for quality control
• Colposcopy is an examination of the cervix under magnification in order to locate an abnormality of the cervix
• Biopsy, colposcopy, or sometimes the use of LASER (a loop electrode) or other instrument allows a diagnosis to be made
• When cervical cancer is found, additional tests -- such as X-rays, using an instrument to look into the bladder (cystoscopy), and rectum and colon (colonoscopy) -- are used to determine how far the cancer has spread and what stage the disease is in