Women told that cervical screening is a life-saver

In fact, January is known in health circles as National Cervical Health Awareness Month.

Every day nine women in the United Kingdom are diagnosed with cervical cancer and three women will lose their lives to the disease.

To be honest, I don’t particularly enjoy doing pap smears, and I also hate getting them as much as anyone.

HPV Awareness, founded in 2002, the only bilingual Registered Charity in Canada providing education programs in every demographic about the human papillomavirus (HPV) in the context of healthy relationships, informing people of all ages of HPV and cervical cancer screening.

He continues, “The biggest risk for cervical cancer is not having a smear test and remaining unaware of the development of the pre-cancer”.

Dr Yasmin Khan, associate medical director of NHS England North said: “We understand that going for a cervical smear test can be daunting but a cervical screening test takes five minutes, is painless, and if you attend each time you’re invited it provides a high degree of protection against developing cervical cancer”. Cervical cancer can usually be cured if it is found and treated in the early stages.

Dr. Reddy explained that HPV is a virus that can be easily spread through direct sexual contact, from the skin and mucous membranes of infected people.

“Cervical Cancer can be PREVENTED and DETECTED before turning into a full-blown cancer”.

· The HPV test looks for the virus that can cause these cell changes.

The NMDOH recommends boys and girls receive the vaccination at age 11 or 12. Parents are encouraged to become educated about the vaccine and talk with their physicians about whether or not to have their child vaccinated. If there is no HPV present then we know the likelihood of cancer in the next few years is extremely low and the patient may be eligible for less frequent pap smears.

If you have a history of abnormal paps or have a lowered immune system then you will likely still need a pap smear each year.

Last year in England 81.6% of 50-54 year old women attended their smear tests last year and this fell to 74.8% of 55-59 year olds and 73.2% of 60-64 year olds.

More than 90percent of cervical cancers are related to the presence of HPV, he said, noting that this is now accepted as a necessary cause of most cervical cancers.

Be sure to visit your health care provider annually for a well-woman exam and find out what is the latest recommendation, for your age group, for this screening, which may be a Papanicolaou (Pap) smear or an HPV test. While a shot in the butt and cold slimy speculum are no fun, neither is cervical cancer.