Protect Yourself from Cervical Cancer

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Cervical cancer is probably one of the most unknown and unfamiliar types of cancer despite that it is the fifth most frequent cancer in women based on the number of deaths. A large percentage of the women population has never heard nor has very little knowledge of what it is. Early stages of cervical cancer show almost no symptoms and is very hard to detect once ignored.

Vaginal bleeding, contact bleeding, moderate pain during sexual intercourse, and unusual vaginal discharge are some of the symptoms but these occurrences are usually mistaken for or are disregarded. Advanced stages shows symptoms like loss of appetite, drastic weight loss, over fatigue, pelvic pain, back pain, leg pain, single swollen leg, heavy bleeding from the vagina, and even leaking of urine or feces from the vagina. You must not wait for these advanced symptoms to happen before you go to your doctor. The earliest sign that something is wrong with your system must immediately tell you to have a check up with your gynecologist.

But as they always say, prevention is better than cure. There are a lot of ways on how to prevent yourself from getting cervical cancer. It was found out that HPV (human papillomavirus) infection is the primary risk factor for almost all cases of cervical cancer. How do you get this HPV infection? HPV infection is sexually transmitted and therefore can be prevented. Avoiding exposure to HPV by delaying sexual intercourse at a very young age, limiting your number of sexual partners and avoiding having sex with men who had a lot of partners can help.

Condoms also give you some protection since it prevents skin-to-skin contact of the genitals, but the protection it provides is not 100%.

If you are a smoker, then the risk of having to develop cervical cancer will be twice higher since the chemicals present in the cigarettes smoke increase the risk by damaging cervical cells. So not smoking is another effective way to reduce the risk.

But one of the best ways is to get a regular Pap smear or Pap test. All women should start getting their Pap test 3 years after they begin having vaginal intercourse, but not later than 21 years old. Test should be done regularly every year and should not be stopped even after having children. Though Pap test is proven very effective, it is still not accurate.

To increase the accuracy of your Pap test, do not schedule your test during your menstrual cycle. 48 hours before the test, do not douche, do not have sexual intercourse, and do not use tampons, birth control foams, or any other vaginal creams. Follow these easy ways to protect yourself, choose a gynecologist that you feel comfortable with and make sure to visit your doctor regularly and you’re sure to have a healthier life cervical cancer free!