Being told that you have cervical cancer can come as a total shock. This new knowledge – which you’ve acquired through your consultation with your gynaecological oncologist – no doubt leaves you with many questions and perhaps anxieties and uncertainties about what the future may hold.
Unfortunately, that is the case for over 3,200 women in the UK who are sadly diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, with just shy of 1,000 women tragically dying from a potentially eradicable disease. To put that into perspective, that’s 9 women being diagnosed and 3 women losing their lives, every single day in the UK.
These are brutal statistics which #TeamEve, along with the Women’s Cancer Department at University College London are determined to change – through imploring women to attend their cervical screening appointments.
Cervical screening? What, how, why
Fortunately in the UK, we have a very successful and efficient screening test which enables us to pick-up any abnormal cells during a woman’s smear test, which if left untreated, could potentially turn cancerous. But it seems that women are still delaying in having their smear tests when called for a number of reasons, whether it is through embarrassment or fear that it may hurt and being uncomfortable. Worse still, is that women in their early 40s and 50s are not attending their cervical screening due to nearing the end of their “smear journey” – and don’t feel it necessary.
In reality, it is a simple process which could potentially save your life. A nurse or doctor collects cells from your cervix using a specially designed plastic brush – a speculum. The brush is then placed into a preservative liquid and the cells are shaken off into the liquid so they can be analysed under the microscope. If the cells are abnormal, then depending on how abnormal they look, and whether they contain the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the woman may be referred to a gynaecologist. The gynaecologist then examines the cervix closely to identify, and if necessary, treat any precancerous cells.
So what does the future hold?
There are plans to change how cervical smears are taken, so that the sample taken with the speculum is analysed for HPV first, and the cells looked at only if the HPV test is positive – which could have a huge impact going forward. However, around 15% of women aged 25-35 years are infected with HPV, so this test will identify a very large number of women who are HPV positive, but in reality, their immune system will usually clear the infection, preventing development of cervical cancer.
So whilst cervical screening has been one of the great success stories of modern medicine, saving thousands of lives a year in the UK alone, it does identify many women as being ‘at risk’ even though the majority won’t go on to get cancer. That is why we’re imploring women to attend regular screening when called and know their bodies; whether you’re a parent taking responsibility for your daughter’s health or a woman in her early 50s and 60s, because at The Eve Appeal we know that regular screening protects women against developing cervical cancer and could ultimately save your life.