MIDWAY, FL - Learning the Warning Signs of cervical cancer can save a life.
In What's Going Around, Dr. Margarett Ellison educated viewers about the signs and why early detection is key.
How do you get cervical cancer?
Cervical cancer comes about from an infection by one or more of the many high risk types of a virus, the Human Papilloma Virus when occurs usually through sexual activity.
Some people clear the virus like a cold and never have problems with it going forward, others harbor the virus in their tissues for many years asymptomatically until they start developing abnormal Pap smear's or later symptoms such as irregular bleeding or pelvic pain.
What are pap screening guidelines?
Women should begin pap testing at 21 years.
Testing from 21 to 29 years of age should be every 3 years.
Women over 30 should get tested every 5 years with the co-test, which uses the pap combined with the High Risk HPV test up to age 65.
Women over 65 can forgo further testing if they have no history of an abnormal pap in the preceding 10 years and had or has serious pre-cancers in the preceding 20 years.
Women who have had a hysterectomy for benign reasons no longer need Pap smears.
Who should get the HPV vaccine?
Boys and girls aged 9-26 (if given prior to age of 15 then only 2 doses 6 months apart are required whereas 3 doses are recommended for older children).
