As a teenager, my acne and pimples were a regular occurrence, and I was a little concerned about this happening to me. Fortunately, this didn’t occur until my twenties, and I still have few bumps and pimples.
While the pap smear itself takes more than five minutes (and that’s with a little hand-holding), it was the fact that I was bleeding that caused me to be so concerned. After an ultrasound-guided pap smear my doctor told me there was no way I had a cancerous growth. Well, now I know there was a little something in there and it was probably bleeding.
Bleeding after a pap smear is one of the most common causes of death among women in the United States. In fact, in 2007 there were more than 4,000 deaths in the U.S. related to pregnancy-related illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a lot compared to the number of deaths from heart disease or cancer caused by the HPV virus, but still more than half of all cancers reported to the CDC.
The cause of pregnancy-related illness isn’t nearly as rare as you might think. One study found that between 1997 and 2005, the rate of abnormal Pap tests was nearly three times higher among women who had a family history of breast cancer, and nearly twice as high among women who had a family history of ovarian cancer.
But what’s more disturbing is the fact that women who test positive to HPV do not necessarily need to come see their doctor. If you’re a woman who is sexually active and is taking care of a baby, doctor’s visits don’t seem to matter when you’ve already had two miscarriages and are now trying to get pregnant again. You can also be HPV-free (not necessarily, but that’s the point of the article) with no further exams, no prescription, or no insurance.
In the article, it is implied that these women did not have the surgery, or even the Pap smears, and that they found out from a Pap smears technician. So the reason they didnt go see their doctors is because theyre already HPV-free.
It’s not clear if these women actually were HPV-free, or if they were simply not using any protection. Either way, it is apparent that HPV is a huge problem in the US. And a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine points out that many women in the USA are choosing to have their Pap smears deferred once they’re positive for HPV.
Even though HPV is an incredibly common virus, it is still the fourth most common cause of cancer in the US. It is a sexually-transmitted disease and is most common in women who have had many sexual partners and are thus at high risk. It is the most common virus in men who have sex with men, with nearly 25% of all new cases in the US. The HPV vaccine has been proven to prevent most cases of HPV, but it is only recommended for women.
We do know that the HPV vaccine is not 100% effective. The number of cases of HPV-related cancers that have been documented in vaccinated people are still much higher than the number of unvaccinated people. However, the vaccine has been shown to reduce HPV incidence by nearly 80%.
The HPV virus is spread easily via the skin. However, as with all viruses, people can become infected by other things (e.g. having sex with someone who is infected with HIV), or by the fact that the HPV virus is spread through sexual contact. The HPV vaccine is effective in preventing transmission of the virus by HPV, but does not prevent infection. The HPV vaccine is, thus, only one of the methods that is used by the CDC to prevent HPV transmission from woman to man.