Cervical cancer affects yearly over half a million women worldwide. Disproportionally, 90% of cervical cancer are diagnosed in LMICs (low and middle-income countries).

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends thermal ablation (TA) to treat women with precancerous lesions in LMICs. However, limited data are available on women’s acceptability of thermal ablation and its adverse events (AEs) in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study is to evaluate the acceptability and safety of thermal ablation in women screened positive for precancerous cervical lesions.

In our study, 2’130 Cameroonian women were screened for HPV. Among them, 399 (18.7%) were HPV-positive. Out of these 399 women, 234 (58.6%) were VIA/VILI positive and were treated by thermal ablation.

Thermal ablation appears acceptable for women, as 90.8% expressed low pain scores (≤ 4/10), and a mean satisfaction score of 99%.

Thermal ablation has proven to be safe: no participant experienced serious AEs.