Lesbian, cervical cancer screening and medical myth

Medical MythBusters

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Cancer has been more prevalent than ever. The incidence and burden of cancer are increasing yearly and might continue to increase. Along with several reasons, screening program was one of the reasons for the initial increase in numbers. Thanks to medical advancements, despite the increasing incidence, the mortality has been decreasing in recent years. Even for this reduction of the mortality, screening plays a key role, as it’s helping to catch cancer early.

What’s this hype? What’s screening?

Screening in medicine is a prevention measure to identify medical conditions at an early stage. In other words, screening is looking for a disease without having any symptoms. There are several established screening programs, cervical cancer screening is one of the popular ones.

Why cervical cancer screening?

Cervical cancer screening is one of the most commonly done screening procedure. Pap test is one of the common procedure. It is done to find out changes in the cervix cells, which if abnormal could further develop into cervical cancer. Most cases of cervical cancer are preventable and are caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). This virus is usually transmitted sexually. Abnormal cells can grow into cervical cancer over time. Pap test is done to catch the early abnormal cells to prevent it from growing into cancer. Cervical screening is established in several industrialized nations.

Even if cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, it’s still second most common cancer in women in developing countries. Nevertheless unbelievable 85% of cervical cancer cases occur in developing countries. There might be numerous reasons for this, one of which definitely is no established cervical cancer screening.

Why this fuss about lesbian women?

There are some recent coverages in major media about this happening. Although I’m not a specialist, patient awareness is the job of every physician. That’s one thing, I take very seriously. Because of a medical myth, that lesbian woman, bisexual women, and transgender men do not need screening, the incidence in those might increase. There are several major reasons: Fear of discrimination, negative experience and low rate of health insurance, behind this. These are however not the sole reasons. This survey from the US provides us more insights into why this is happening, and everyone, including the physicians and nurses, is directly/indirectly responsible.

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Is Cervical screening the answer to everything?

No definitely not. There are several other risk factors for cervical cancer. Promiscuity, sex at an early age and other risky sexual habits are some of them. These factors are however associated with HPV infection. Since recently a vaccination is recommended for the prevention of infection through certain strains of HPV. Mostly, the girls who haven’t had their first sex benefit from the vaccine. The vaccination is however recommended in several age groups and consists of different dosage in different age groups. The most common transmission way of HPV infection is sex, hence even boys are recommended to get the vaccination. A recent study shows some convincing evidence about the impact of the vaccination in reducing the incidence of cancer incidence.

Even if the vaccination is against the most common HPV strains, that are responsible for cervical cancer, there are other strains, of which we do not have a vaccination against yet. Cervical screening is therefore essential also to women with completion of the recommended vaccination. The risk, however, is already way lower.

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So what is the message?

Years of medical research and advancements led us to cervical screening and even more years to HPV-Vaccination. It’s a shame, that medical myths sanctioned lesbian women, bisexual women, and transgender men, benefit from the widely-accepted cervical screening programs.