Do you know every 7minutes one woman is dying of cervical cancer in India? This is sad, but true. Unfortunately, cervical cancer takes the second spot globally when it comes to cancers among women, next only to breast cancer.
However, regular screening tests can help prevent cervical cancer completely. Cervical Cancer is highly curable if diagnosed early and treated appropriately.
What Causes Cervical Cancer?
In most cases, it is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted from one person to the other during sex. If you’re a worried parent, one more way to reduce the risk of cervical cancer is by getting your daughter HPV vaccinated before she becomes sexually active.
Research has shown that some other factors too can increase the risk of cervical cancer. These include smoking, depression, indulgence in contraceptive pills and maybe family’s history of diseases.
Fight Cervical Cancer with Regular Screening Tests
Regular screening becomes all the more important for cancer prevention, because one can’t figure out any symptoms of cervical cancer in the early stage. And regular screening would help detect the pre-cancerous abnormalities in the cervix, which can stop the disease from developing or can cure the disease completely.
Two of the screening tests which can help detect and treat the disease early are:
- Papanicolaou (Pap) Test – These tests search the pre-cancerous abnormalities on the cervix, and treat them effectively.
- HPV Test – These tests help in finding the cell changes on the cervix, which can further give birth to cervical cancer.
The death rate of cervical cancer has reduced over the years because of screening tests; therefore, women must not ignore these tests to fight this killer disease.
And it is highly advisable that all women between the age group of 21-65 should go for Pap test in every 3 years, and women between the age group of 30-65 should go for Pap test as well as HPV test in every 5 years.
CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in America, Laurie Glimcher, also stresses on the importance of regular screenings by saying – If you have a pap smear every year, there’s no reason to develop cervical cancer.
So ladies, take all possible measures to prevent this deadly disease, and make this world a happy and healthy place for you all!
