CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Cervical stenosis is a postoperative complication of procedures for treating preinvasive lesions of the cervix and takes on particular importance due to the clinical repercussions associated with it. Furthermore, it causes limitations in relation to cytological and colposcopic follow-up. The aim here was to assess the incidence of cervical stenosis among a cohort of patients who underwent electrosurgical conization and to identify possible prognostic factors associated with its occurrence. DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective study at Gynecology and Obstetrics Department, Instituto Fernandes Figueira, Rio de Janeiro. METHODS: This was an observational study among a cohort of patients who underwent electrosurgical conization of the uterine cervix. The possible predictive variables were analyzed as bivariate means between the groups with and without stenosis. We also calculated the incidence density rate ratio for cervical stenosis in relation to each possible predictive variable and the respective confi dence intervals (95%). Levels of 5% were considered signifi cant. RESULTS: 274 patients who underwent electrosurgical conization of the uterine cervix with a minimum follow-up period of six months were included. The crude incidence of cervical stenosis was 7.66% and the incidence density was 3.3/1,000 patients-month. CONCLUSIONS: We did not fi nd associations between the variables for stenosis. However, we observed borderline signifi cance levels relating to hemorrhagic complications before and after the operation (p = 0.089).