Microfilaria in the endometrial smear.

This brief letter to the editor reports a case of filariasis diagnosed from a Papanicolaou smear (figure included). She was a 40-year-old woman who had been fitted with a Copper T 200 device 1 month before returning to complain of profuse bleeding during her first postinsertion menstrual cycle. The IUD was removed on Day 6 of cycle and a routine smear showed 2 adult microfilariae in a background of erythrocytes. A figerprick blood smear did not confirm the diagnosis. The explanation for the endometrial smear finding is that the patient was an asymptomatic carrier and because of the rupture of endometrial capillaries during her menstrual bleeding these organisms had escaped into the endometrial cavity.