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Medical Guide
| Women's Health
| Cervical Cancer |
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 Cancer
that forms in tissues of the cervix. The cervix is what connects your uterus and
vagina.
It is usually a very common, but slow-growing cancer that may not have symptoms
but can be found with yearly pap tests.
There is now a shot that can help prevent cervical cancer. This shot (HPV)
should be given to female children between the ages of 12-19. |
 What
causes cervical cancer? |
The cervix is the part of the womb that projects into the vagina. It
measures less than one inch across and about one and a half inches in
length. It is a block of a special type of muscle covered by a thin layer of
surface cells.
Cancer of the cervix develops in these surface cells, which first start
to grow in an abnormal way (precancerous cells). After about 10 years, the
precancerous cells turn into true cancer cells, which spread into the muscle
of the cervix and surrounding tissue and then to other parts of the body.
Precancerous cells in the cervix seem to develop after an infection of
the cervix by a sexually transmitted virus called human papilloma virus.
This virus also causes genital warts.
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What
are the risk factors of cervical cancer?
(may have one or more of these symptoms) |
- first had sex at an early age
- became pregnant as a teenager
- smoke
- use contraceptives that do not act as barriers
- have had a large number of sexual partners or have a sexual partner
who has had many other partners
- you are infected with the AIDS virus (HIV)
- take immunosuppressant drugs (ie: after a kidney transplant)
- have been infected with a sexually transmitted disease at any time
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When
should you seek medical advice? |
- you experience bleeding between normal periods
- if you bleed after sex
- if you experience post-menopausal vaginal bleeding
- pain when having sex and vaginal discharge
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Special
Websites for Breast Cancer: |
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General Health Information |
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