Cervical Cancer

This year, 2009, we have all, in the UK anyway, heard about the death of celebrity Jade Goody. She had cervical cancer. The good news is that her death has increased awareness of the problem and in my local area, Bushey, a newspaper reported that there was an increase in the number of requests for cervical smears.

What are the ways of dealing with cervical cancer? Obviously, start with education. Then:

1 Be a nun. Nun's don't get it. Or it least not at the same rate as the rest of the female population. In the olden day's this would have been a good choice. The first choice. Abstinence from sex. Nowadays other options are available and preferred.

2 Vaccination. I spoke to a gynaecologist about this. The government (NHS) is planning to start vaccination on 14-year-olds. Girls before they reach the age of consent, and before they become sexually active. How long will the vaccination be effective? A year, five years, ten years, a lifetime? We don't yet know because we don't have a large population who have been vaccinated who have lived long enough after the vaccination for us to get the results. 

3 Cervical smears. This is both before and after treatment, but mainly after. Before in the sense that you might spot something which would later develop into cancer. (And a few false positives or just the thought of having the test might scare people into seeing that they and their children get vaccinated.) Mostly after, by identifying cancer in the early stages you treat it before it spreads all over the body and is untreatable.