Post-menopausal bleeding: a study of more than 1000 cases

This paper reports the cause, incidence of malignancies, certain clinical features, and the time lag between the bleeding and the establishment of its cause, in the 1019 cases of post-menopausal bleeding investigated by the Universitäts-Frauenklinik in Tübingen, West Germany, between 1969 and 1972. Although many of the patients had experienced just one post-menopausal bleeding before seeking medical help, and most reported that their bleeding(s) had been "light" and of short duration, a malignancy was found in 48% of the cases. The most common were cervical cancer (228 cases) and endometrial cancer (215). 31% of the cervical cancers and 12% of the endometrial cancers were in an advanced stage of development. A clear link emerged between increased age and the incidence of malignancies, but the paper shows the importance of any type of post-menopausal bleeding, however slight, being thoroughly investigated.