The worst part was having the local anaesthetic administered to my cervix with a needle.
My pick for Most Unpromising Title: "CERVIX WITH A SMILE," described in press materials as "hilarious and slightly disturbing".
It found that the D&X procedure permits the fetus to pass through the cervix with a minimum of instrumentation.
The procedure involves washing the cervix with vinegar, peering at it with a flashlight and freezing any white spots with liquid carbon dioxide.
A nurse swabs the cervix with vinegar and can see the pre-cancerous cells by the light of a lamp, because they turn white.
But in some countries, women get "visualization," pioneered in the last decade, also with Gates Foundation support: a health worker looks at the cervix with a flashlight and swabs it with vinegar.
The procedure, known as VIA/cryo for visualization of the cervix with acetic acid (vinegar) and treatment with cryotherapy, can be done by a nurse, and only one visit is needed to detect and kill an incipient cancer.
Last year in a preview of the Midtown International Theater Festival, Mr. Isherwood wrote regarding my entry, a solo musical, "My pick for Most Unpromising Title: 'Cervix With a Smile.' " We decided to run with it and plastered our posters with large labels saying "Most Unpromising Title in the Festival -- Charles Isherwood, New York Times".
They estimate that perhaps 5percentt of the 13,000 women in whom cervical cancer is diagnosed in the United States annually may qualify as candidates for the procedure; that is, they have cancer limited to the cervix with lesions no larger than two to three centimeters, they want children and are young enough to have them.
Ripening of the cervix with a Foley catheter commonly results in cervical dilatation without contractions.
It is characterized by the presence of a normal externally rounded cervix with the presence of a septum.
