Yearly Gynecological Checkups Make for Good Preventive Medicine
Although cervical cancer occurs mainly in younger women, women in all stages of life should schedule yearly gynecological exams that include pap smear tests and the physical examination of the uterus as well as a clinical breast exam. Of course, those women who are at most risk for developing cervical cancer are often at least risk for developing uterine cancer and vice-versa.
Perhaps the most publicized cause of cervical cancer is the human papilloma virus (or HPV), which is spread by sexual relations with uncircumcised partners. Condoms provide some protection against this infection, but they can’t protect entirely against it. Women who carry to term three or more pregnancies as well as those who first become pregnant at age seventeen or below are also more likely to be diagnosed with cancer of the cervix.
However, these aren’t the only risk factors associated with cervical cancer since smoking, the suppression of the immune system, chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections (or STIs), diets low in vitamins best provided by fruits and vegetables, obesity, and the use of oral contraceptives all heighten the risk of developing cervical cancer as does family history; for example, the now middle-aged daughters of women who took DES (doethylstilbestrol) between 1940 and 1971 many years later show an increased incidence of cervical cancer. Asians and Hispanic women are also more likely to develop cervical cancer than women of African and European descent.
While cancer of the cervix in a disease that primarily afflicts younger women below the age of thirty, uterine cancer is most likely to strike women over sixty as well as women who have never given birth. Going through menopause at a later age than average (in the mid-fifties) also correlates with a greater risk for cancer of the uterus as does taking estrogen after menopause without also taking progesterone. As with cervical and breast cancer, keeping a healthy body weight lessens the chances of developing uterine cancer. Curiously, however, smoking lowers the risk of uterine cancer.
Since most women in the Western World now make yearly visits to their gynecologist during their child bearing years, an examination of the uterus and cervix during this time period is often an annual or semi-annual event that has greatly lessened the death rate of cervix cancer. However, after menopause, many women mistakenly believe that they can stop these regular visits, but uterine cancer is more likely to occur in post menopausal women. Admittedly, even after a life time of these intrusive physical exams, middle-aged women still find them invasive and uncomfortable, but they do catch the unchecked growth of uterine and cervix cancer before they metastasize.
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