Endometrial Biopsy Procedures
- If you've been bleeding abnormally or if your doctor suspects you may have precancerous changes within your uterus, he may order an endometrial biopsy in order to arrive at a diagnosis so he can decide what the best treatment course of action might be.
Other reasons for your doctor to order an endometrial biopsy would be to evaluate potential infertility, find out why you might be bleeding postmenopausally (if you are postmenopausal), or to evaluate why you have not had periods for at least one year. If you have had a Pap smear and the results were abnormal, indicating an origin in your endometrium, he could also decide he needs to conduct an endometrial biopsy.
If you have a previously diagnosed endometrial hyperplasia, your doctor might decide to follow up on this diagnosis with a biopsy, in order to either find a reason for changes within your uterus or with your endometrium, especially if you have begun to bleed after experiencing menopause. If he has told you that you are infertile, he may need to find out if the cause of your infertility is within the endometrium, which is the lining of the uterus that the embryo would implant into. - A small sample of your endometrium is taken and cultured during an endometrial biopsy so your doctor and pathologist can find out why you are having particular symptoms. If you have received a diagnosis of infertility and you are undergoing fertility treatments, your doctor may want to find out how ready your endometrium is to accept the implantation of an embryo. If it is not and you should be in that part of your cycle where your endometrium is ready to accept the implantation of an egg, your doctor could arrive at a diagnosis of "luteal phase defect", which is a hormonal disorder.
In the event of an abnormal diagnostic test such as the Pap smear, your doctor could learn that you have cancer. If you have been bleeding abnormally, your doctor wants to find out if you have an overgrown endometrium or if you have developed uterine polyps.
