There are plenty of things that can interfere with your fertility, and some of them aren’t always especially obvious. From some foods that might cause problems with fertility to things like whether your partner wears tighty whiteys, we’re used to finding out that unsuspecting and often sort of normal life events can, in some ways, interfere with your ability to get pregnant. Fortunately for the woman who has to have a colposcopy however, this routine medical testing procedure is not one of them.

It’s important to understand exactly what a colposcopy is. A colposcopy is a procedure used by a doctor to examine a woman’s reproductive system. Specifically, it examines the exterior sexual organs, the vagina and the cervix in a close way. A colposcopy is usually recommended after you have a pap smear that produces a result of “abnormal.”

The purpose of a colposcopy is usually to help detect cervical cancer, hopefully in the early stages. When cervical cancer is detected early, the prognosis for recover is much better than when it is not detected.

In some cases, the doctor may perform a biopsy as part of the colposcopy . This biopsy is a process of taking a small tissue sample from the area of the cervix that seems to be abnoral. Those tissue samples are then sent off to a pathologist, where they will be examined and it will be determined whether or not they’re cancerous.

Having a colposcopy doesn’t impact your odds of getting pregnant. Even if a biopsy is necessary, the amount of tissue that is taken is relatively small. In terms of side effects, in some cases you may have a small amount of bleeding or some dark discharge after the colposcopy. In most cases, this comes from the medical paste that the doctor places on the spot from which the biopsy was taken.

Cervical cancer, in contrast, can affect your ability to get pregnant. In fact, detecting cervical cancer early can greatly affect your future fertility, and so in some ways you’re better off getting a colposcopy if your doctor recommends it.