January was Cervical Health Awareness Month, but it's always a great time to think about how you talk to your patients about the disease.
It's impossible to discuss cervical cancer awareness without mentioning the human papillomavirus (HPV). At this point, most of your patients probably know there's a relationship, but they may have misconceptions about both diseases. Taking time to gauge your patients' understanding and fill in the gaps can help them make informed health decisions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that there are about 12,000 new cases of HPV-related cervical cancer diagnosed every year, although the rate has been dropping. Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV, with strains 16 and 18 causing 70 percent of cases. African-American and Hispanic women see more diagnoses than women of other races (approximately nine per 100,000 versus seven per 100,000). Sadly, the National Cancer Institute estimated that more than 4,000 women died from the disease in 2022. However, cervical cancer is highly preventable if patients follow their physician's recommendations.
What Your Patients Should Understand About HPV
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the country, and almost everyone will get it at some point in their life. This information might scare your patients, because when most people think about STIs, they think of ones that don't go away.
Many women may not realize that their bodies fight off HPV within a year or two. Most strains don't cause any symptoms, so it's likely that, without being tested, they will never know they had it. Unnecessary worry is why current guidelines don't recommend testing women for HPV until they're over 30.
Talking about HPV and sharing a diagnosis can be a sensitive subject or evoke an emotional response, so having a strong relationship with your patients helps navigate these tricky areas. Women who get tested may be upset to find out they have HPV and question their relationships. Let them know that it can take weeks, months or even years for signs of HPV to develop. It's not necessarily a sign of infidelity. Both young and more mature women may also fail to realize that condoms don't protect against HPV. The virus can live in genital hair and other areas not covered by the condom.
Cervical Cancer Awareness and HPV Prevention
With a quick overview of HPV, the key message to send to patients is that cervical cancer is preventable. HPV infections that don't leave the body can cause changes to cells in the cervix, leading to precancer. These changes develop over time and regular Papanicolaou (Pap) tests catch those changes early, when they're highly treatable. The five-year survival for cervical cancer is more than 91 percent when caught early, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Standards for Pap smears have undergone frequent changes in the past few years, and your patients may not know what to expect. Current guidelines recommend that women ages 18 to 29 undergo a Pap test every three years. Starting at age 30, women should get a combined Pap and HPV test every five years.
Catch Cervical Issues Early With Regular Screening
Cervical cancer doesn't present any symptoms for most women. Advanced cancer can sometimes cause abnormal bleeding or pain, but these can easily be mistaken for other gynecologic issues. Regular screening is the best way to catch any changes and treat them before they become cancer.
Young women should get the HPV vaccine. If you care for women under the age of 26 who are eligible to get the vaccine and have yet to do so, talk to them about the importance of it. Emphasize the fact that the HPV vaccine prevents the two highest-risk types of the infection, along with strains that cause other types of cancer and genital warts.
Taking a few moments to discuss cervical cancer awareness, especially in patient groups with higher rates of incidence, can help patients make smart sexual health decisions and prevent long-term problems.
