The presenting face of the cervix is oval, with the long axis antero-posterior.
The angles of laceration may be determined, by sight or touch, either as more or less well-marked depressions or as hard plugs in case they are filled up by scar-tissue. The mucous membrane of the cervical canal may be made out as a strip on the anterior and posterior lips, from which there extends laterally a more or less well-marked erosion.
The vaginal cervix is not of the general mushroom shape seen in the figure.
If microscopic examination of the cervix be made, racemose glands will be found discharging only on the mucous membrane of the cervical canal—not all over the vaginal aspect.
In the congenital ectropion—
There may be no history of pregnancy.
The presenting face of the cervix is approximately circular.
There is no angle of laceration determined by sight or touch.
The erosion may extend evenly around the external os, and there is no one strip that corresponds to the exposed mucous membrane of the cervical canal.
The vaginal cervix is mushroom-shaped, with a decided stalk.