That article makes some great points, but it seems like the author was either confused on a few points, isn't very good with words, or just didn't explain some of the areas very well.
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Women double the risk of developing cervical cancer if they have sex at an early age, warn researchers.
The cervix is made up of two kinds of cells. One kind is fairly hearty and resilient. The other is more delicate. Our cervix starts out with mostly the delicate cells. As we get older we get more of the resilient cells. So when a teen gets HPV, there is a higher chance of it developing into cancer because all those delicate cells might not be able to hold up against the HPV invasion quite as good as the more resilient cells would have been able to.
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But smoking and the number of sexual partners - both long thought to be important factors - did not account for any of the difference.
Girls who smoke may be more likely to engage in high risk behavior. And more partners would mean more chances to get HPV. So it seems like those two things would make a big impact. But HPV is incredibly common. It's estimated that about 90% of people either have HPV, had HPV, or will get HPV. So you don't need to be risky, unsafe, or sleeping with a lot of people in order to get HPV. If you have sex at all, there's a good chance you have it!
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Study leader Dr Silvia Francheschi said the risk of cervical cancer was higher in women who had their first intercourse aged 20, compared with 25.
The cervix finishes developing around the age of 21. Before that it's mostly delicate cells, after that it's mostly resilient cells.
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'These results back up the need for the HPV vaccination to be given in schools at an age before they start having sex, especially among girls in deprived areas.'
The HPV vaccination has not been well tested. We do not know the long term effects. We do not know whether it will last for life, whether it will wear off, whether it will have serious long-term side effects, etc. There have also been over 30 cases where young girls seem to have died after receiving the vaccine.
HPV is very common, but it rarely turns into cervical cancer. In fact, it usually goes away on it's own after a few years and most people don't even realize they were infected with it. But even when it does turn into cervical cancer, it's not a big deal for women who have routine paps. It usually just means cutting a bit of cancerous cervix off. Cervical cancer is a very slow moving and easy to treat cancer. It's the women who do not have routine paps who run into trouble and can even die.
So I do not recommend getting the vaccine right now. It's essentially a choice between injecting a highly questionable substance into your body versus getting a bit of cervix snipped off in a 10 minute office visit procedure.
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Routine checks for younger women were scrapped in 2003 but in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the starting age is still 20.
In the US some doctors say women can wait until they are 18 or whenever they start having sex, whichever happens first. Others say it's ok to wait until 21 or after three years of having sex, whichever happens first. I go to Family Planning, and they go by the "18 or when you start having sex" recommendation. So women in the US can get free or low cost paps in their teens without a problem.
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But a Government review of policy in England in June said screening women from the age of 20 would cause 'more harm than good' because treatment would be given for symptoms that might resolve naturally.
Fifty years ago that statement would have made more sense. Fifty years ago doctors did not know that HPV usually didn't turn into cancer, and they didn't know that HPV usually went away on its own after a few years. So when young women were diagnosed with HPV, the doctors often took out their entire cervix thinking they were saving women from cancer nice and early. But now we know a lot more and that isn't the way it's done anymore.
A doctor knows a woman has HPV when the doctor spots abnormal cells on a pap smear. But instead of panicking like they would have done 50 years ago, they now consider it routine. The next step in the process is to have a colposcopy. A colposcopy is pretty much like a pap smear on steroids. It feels just like a pap smear, but it takes 10-15 minutes instead of 1-2 minutes. During this beefed up pap smear the doctor takes a really good, long look at the cervix. They want to make sure there are no cancerous patches. If any patches look even the least bit questionable, they'll take a little sample to send for biopsy just in case. After that the doctor will usually recommend that you come in every six months to a year just so they can keep an eye on it in case it ever does turn into cancer.
Other than that, there are no symptoms to treat because the kinds of HPV that can cause cervical cancer don't cause any noticeable symptoms. That is why routine paps are needed; you can't just wait until something doesn't feel right! So having HPV pretty much just means you have to get your paps more frequently for a few years until it goes away. Not a big deal.
3nodding So it sounds like the government is probably concerned with spending all that money on paps and biopsies when most of the HPV cases won't turn into cancer anyway. And they're kind of right that it is a lot of money spent. But oh well. That's the way it is with routine exams. I'd sure rather "waste" the money than have women die of something that is so incredibly easy to monitor and treat!
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