The cervix is located at the bottom part of a women’s uterus organ which connects the uterus and the vagina. Age plays a major role in this type of cancer, where the cervical cancer age occurs in women who are in their mid-50s in most of the cases. There are some precancerous changes in the cervix that can also occur in the 20s or 30s, but it can be prevented if detected early with appropriate treatment and care.

Causes of Cervical Cancer

Cigarette smoking is one of the causes of cervical cancer in women. The smokers are three to five times more at risk to this cancer than the non-smokers.

Oral contraceptives or pill intake for a prolonged period like 5 years or above may cause the risk of developing these cervical cancers.

Human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which may lead to abnormal changes in the cervical cells leading to the cancerous growth at the later change. If there is early sexual contact soon after puberty like at the age of 16 or multiple sex partners or abnormal skin disorders like skin warts, genital warts are some of the high-risk factors for cervical cancer growth at later years.

Symptoms

Generally, cervical cancer is one of the cancer types which does not show any obvious symptoms at the early stage. Since it is a slowly progressing disease some patients will not know until it has come to the dangerous stage. However, performing regular pap smear test according to the women’s age is the best detection method to check any cancerous growth at the early stage.diabetes symptoms, signs of type 1 diabetes, exercise for diabetes

Other common symptoms include,

Vaginal bleeding other than the menstrual period, especially after menopause. General pain in and around the pelvic region. Fluid discharge. Sometimes kidney failure leads to abnormality in the cervical cells as well.

Treatment

Depending upon the cervical cancer stages the treatment plan varies accordingly. Stage 0 is the least risk stage whereas the final stage is the stage IV which is known as the metastatic disease and it is the life-threatening stage. So many factors like size, the degree of the spread and the depth of the cancerous cells determine each stage.