Healing touch in a body of knowledge

A former gynecologist draws on the visual to explain how things work

In a series of pictures posted on the popular social platform Sina Weibo, a user going by the name Mr. Liucenglou showed his followers what the cervix looks like in different situations, with the help of doughnuts.

In the last illustration, which is a GIF animation, with both hands in surgical gloves, Liu picks up a pink doughnut that was used to describe what cervical erosion, or cervical ectropion, looks like and eats it up.

The former gynecologist has been engaged in popularizing medical knowledge on gynecological diseases since 2014. Looking at the social media platform Douban, he felt it was hard to keep quiet when he heard others talking ignorantly about some gynecological diseases.

One of the most frequently discussed questions was whether cervical erosion is a gynecological disease.

In China, some women feel concerned or ashamed when they are told by doctors during regular physical examinations that they have cervical erosion.

Cervical erosion is an inflammation of the cervix that is generally regarded as being of no health concern.

"It's not a gynecological disease at all," Liu said.

"But its name, based on how it looks, always misleads people and makes some worry that it may in some way be related to cervical cancer.

"When I saw people were looking for answers on things I happened to know about, I thought I should provide those answers."

At that time, Liu, a medical student majoring in cervical cancer, which is often curable if it is diagnosed at an early stage, was working as a clinical intern in a hospital in Beijing.

"Many people have such a misunderstanding that gynecological diseases are definitely related with sexual life. So some unmarried women or girls will not go to hospital even if they're not feeling well."

In the next few years even after Liu had become a gynecologist, he kept answering questions and passing on his knowledge through social media in a down-to-earth way.

In the hospital he once cried after a 21-year-old girl with a malignant tumor called choriocarcinoma died, even after having three major operations over three years.

"I wished I could have met her earlier and told her to go to the hospital for a checkup," he said.