Dr Shazia Noreen Durrani, consultant obstetrician, gynaecologist and infertility specialist, talks cervical cancer, the third most common female cancer in the Kingdom.
What is cervical cancer?
Cervical cancer happens when cells in the cervix grow in an uncontrolled way and build up to form a lump (also called a tumour). As the tumour grows, cells can eventually spread to other parts of the body and become life-threatening. It’s the third most common cancer among females in Bahrain according to a 2014 World Health Organisation report.
What causes cervical cancer?
Nearly all cervical cancers are caused by a virus called human papillomavirus (or HPV for short). It can be passed on through any type of sexual activity with a man or woman.
What is cervical screening?
Cervical screening (which used to be called the ‘smear test’) involves taking a small sample of cells from the surface of the cervix which are checked in a laboratory for abnormal cells and HPV. Abnormal cells are not necessarily cancer, but they could develop into the disease. If abnormality is detected, as a next step you may be offered another test (called a colposcopy) to look at your cervix more closely. If the person carrying out the colposcopy finds abnormal cells, they will suggest that you have the cells removed, usually during another colposcopy. This is how screening can prevent cervical cancer.
What are the benefits of cervical screening?
Cervical screening helps to prevent cancer. It stops about one woman getting cervical cancer for every 100 women who have screening. Cervical screening saves as many as 5,000 lives from cervical cancer a year in the UK.
What are the risks of cervical screening?
The risks of cervical screening come from removing abnormal cells during a colposcopy and not from the screening test itself. Removing abnormal cells can sometimes cause bleeding or an infection, and it can also affect future pregnancies.
What does the HPV vaccine do?
Gardasil 9 is an HPV vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US and can be used for both girls and boys of eight to 15 years, this vaccine can prevent vaginal and vulvar cancer in women, and can prevent genital warts and anal cancer in women and men.
Does the HPV vaccine offer benefits if you’re already sexually active?
Yes. Even if you already have one strain of HPV, you could still benefit from the vaccine because it can protect you from other strains. However, none of the vaccines can treat an existing HPV infection.
What can you do to protect yourself from cervical cancer if you’re not in the recommended vaccine age group?
HPV spreads through sexual contact – oral, vaginal or anal. To protect yourself from HPV, use a condom every time you have sex. In addition, don’t smoke. smoking raises the risk of cervical cancer.
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