The Needle Biopsy (FNA)
Your doctor recommended a thyroid biopsy — or you just got the results back. This series explains exactly what FNA biopsy involves, what every Bethesda category means, and when further action is needed.
Get your biopsy result decoded
in plain English with recommendations
in under 2 minutes.
Walk through your FNA result step by step. Understand exactly what your Bethesda category means, the cancer risk, and the specific next steps your pathologist's report points to.
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Thyroid Biopsy (FNA): Does It Hurt? What to Expect Start to Finish
Of all the questions patients ask before a thyroid biopsy, one comes up more than any other: does it hurt? The honest answer is that most…
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Your Thyroid Biopsy Results Explained: A Patient Guide to the Bethesda System
You had the biopsy. You waited several days. And now the result has arrived containing a word or Roman numeral that means nothing to you.…
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Your Thyroid Biopsy Came Back “Indeterminate”: What Bethesda III (3) and IV (4) Really Mean
You had the biopsy. You waited for the results. And the answer that came back was not the one you were hoping for.
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Molecular Testing for Thyroid Nodules: The Advance That Can Help You Avoid Unnecessary Surgery
Every year, thousands of patients with thyroid nodules undergo surgery that turns out to be unnecessary. The nodule is removed, the…
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Bethesda 5 Thyroid Biopsy: Suspicious for Malignancy Explained
A Bethesda 5 result means your biopsy is suspicious for cancer, but not yet definitive. The malignancy risk is roughly 60 to 75%.
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Bethesda 6: Malignant biopsy result and what comes next
A Bethesda 6 result confirms thyroid cancer with a probability greater than 97%. This is a frightening result to read on a piece of paper.
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Your Biopsy Was Non-Diagnostic (Bethesda I): What Happens Now
A Bethesda I result is the most frustrating kind of biopsy outcome. The needle was used, the doctor performed a good technical biopsy, the…
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Your Biopsy Was Benign (Bethesda II): Your Next 5 Years of Surveillance
A Bethesda II result is the most common biopsy outcome and the one most patients hope for. It means the cells from the thyroid nodule…
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Repeat Thyroid Biopsy: When You Should Have It and What to Expect
A repeat thyroid biopsy gets recommended in several specific situations, and most of them are not a cause for significant concern.…
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Core-Needle Biopsy vs. FNA for Thyroid Nodules
Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is the standard type of needle biopsy for thyroid nodules. Core-needle biopsy is a different procedure that…
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