Don’t Put Off Cervical Cancer Screenings

Dr. Seema Sidhu

The bad news: There were 13,170 new cases of cervical cancer among American women in 2019, the latest figures available, with some 4,250 deaths that year. Health officials remind us of that during Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, every January. 

It is caused by a virus that is sexually transmitted, and most American adults have that virus without knowing it. Most won’t develop cancer, but they could pass along the virus to someone who might. 

While men don’t have a cervix, they can develop cancers in other parts of the body that come into sexual contact with a carrier.

But there is good news, too, according to Dr. Seema Sidhu of Kaiser Permanente, Assistant Physician-in-Chief at their Fremont hospital and an obstetrician-gynecologist.

There is a vaccine that can protect against HPV, the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer and can cause several others, but to get fullest immunity one needs to get it as a child, Dr. Sidhu said.

She adds that widely available screening can catch cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages or head it off altogether.

Many women grew up being told that they needed to get regular Pap smears to look for the earliest signs of changes in cells in the cervix that can become cancerous if left untreated, Dr. Sidhu said. 

Now, an HPV test is also available that looks for genetic markers of disease risk, she said.

During the pandemic, Dr. Sidhu said, some women were sufficiently relieved they hadn’t caught Covid, and sufficiently happy that they felt fine, that they put off Pap smears and other regular screenings.

“To be honest, you DO need it if you’re feeling fine,” the doctor said. “That’s the point of screening!”

Sidhu urged parents to get the vaccine for their children while they are relatively young.

A child can get the vaccine as young as age 9, while it is recommended as part of routine childhood immunizations at age 11 or 12 by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Kaiser Permanente considers the vaccine a part of routine immunizations for children and young people and covers it under their health plan, Dr. Sidhu said.

While there’s some belief that cervical cancer is a disease of older women, women can develop it at any age, and Dr. Sidhu reports that some of her patients are in their thirties. 

Men who are carriers can pass it to women, and while men lack a cervix, they can develop cancer in other parts of the body when there is sexual contact with carriers, she said.

The shot can be given up to age 21 for men and age 26 for women, Dr. Sidhu said. That means that a young person of college-age whose parents did not get them the shot as a child could get it on their own.

More than 100 million doses have now been given in this country without any serious safety issues arising, Dr. Sidhu said, and the vaccine has proven to be highly effective.

One can get further information on cervical cancer prevention and screening at multiple medical websites, including Kaiser Permanente’s.