Cancer

How can I avoid or prevent cervical cancer?

Most precancers of the cervix can be prevented by avoiding exposure to human papilloma virus (HPV). If you are young, delaying having sexual intercourse can help you avoid HPV infection. Limiting your sexual partners and avoiding sex with people who have had many sexual partners can lower your risk of exposure to HPV. HPV does not always cause warts or other symptoms: an infected person can pass the virus on to someone else without knowing it. Even if there are no warts or other symptoms, a person with HPV can still pass on the virus to another person. Like HIV, HPV can be present for several years without showing any symptoms.

While Women's Web encourages readers to practice safe sex to protect against HIV, chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections, you should know that condoms cannot protect against HPV. This is because HPV is passed from one person to another through skin-to-skin contact with any HPV-infected part of the body, such as skin of the genital or anal area not covered by a condom.

Quitting smoking and improving your diet are other ways you can reduce your risk.

Cancer of the cervix can also be prevented through regular Pap tests to detect for precancerous changes and HPV. Treatment of these disorders can stop precancers from progressing to cervical cancer: most invasive cervical cancers are found in women who have not had regular Pap tests.

A pelvic exam is not the same thing as a Pap test. (See Pap test for more information on the types of Pap tests, how they are done, and tips to increase the accuracy of your results.) A pelvic exam is an examination in which a doctor looks at and feels the reproductive organs, including the uterus, Fallopian tubes, bladder, cervix, and ovaries, feeling these organs for any change in their size or shape. A speculum is used to widen the vagina, allowing the doctor to see the upper part of the vagina and the cervix. Your doctor may also test for sexually transmitted infections and diseases, but no cultures or specimens are taken. This is why a pelvic exam, although it can find other types of gynecological cancers and reproductive problems, does not find cervical cancer at an early stage and cannot detect abnormal cells or lesions.

A Pap test, on the other hand, is intended to remove cells from the cervix by gently scraping or brushing it with a special instrument. This instrument collects cell samples and mucus which are then examined under a microscope by a cytotechnologists and/or a pathologist. (See Pap test for more information.)

If the results of your Pap test are abnormal, your doctor may recommend further tests. Many diagnostic tests are not necessary for every patient: the tests requested by your doctor will largely depend on the results of your physical examination and initial biopsy. See Diagnostic Tests for more information on additional tests for women with abnormal cervical cytology results.

Pap tests are vital in the early detection of cervical cancer. In fact, in populations around the world where women do not have routine Pap tests, cervical deaths are higher: cervical cancer is the leading cause of death among women in developing countries. This is because these cases are usually diagnosed at an invasive late stage, rather than as precancers or early cancers.

Also be sure to read…

Cervical cancer
How can I avoid or prevent cervical cancer?
Diagnostic tests for women with abnormal cervical cytology results
Treating cervical cancer
Pap test
Chlamydia
Human papilloma virus (HPV)