Introduction: Pap smear is the universally accepted, standard screening tool for the detection of cervical pathology. It is primarily used for the screening and evaluation of cytological changes in the cervix resulting in precancerous lesions and invasive cancers. Inflammation in pap smear is a common finding in premenopausal females due to various infections but postmenopausal females can also have an inflammatory smear due to various causes. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional study which includes postmenopausal females coming to the outpatient department of HAHC hospital, New Delhi, for any complaints during the period of 5 years. Those patients underwent routine pap smear, findings were tabulated, and appropriate statistical analysis was done. Results: The sample size of the study is 498; most of the females, 178 (35.74%), were of the age group 45–50 years. In this study, the prevalence of inflammatory smear was 58.23%. Out of 498 postmenopausal females, 222 patients (44.57%) had a normal cervix on per speculum examination, and out of these normal-looking cervixes, 43 (64.41%) had inflammation on pap smear. Conclusion: Inflammatory smear despite a normal-looking cervix is not uncommon in postmenopausal females; therefore, follow-up of such patients is necessary for timely diagnosis of any premalignant lesion of the cervix.
Gupta et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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