January is Cervical Health Awareness Month — a good time to check in with your health care provider to see if it’s time for a cervical cancer screening.
Cervical cancer is caused by certain types of HPV (human papillomavirus), the most common sexually transmitted infection. In most cases, HPV is harmless and goes away on its own — but high-risk HPV can lead to cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers. As many as 93% of cervical cancer cases could be avoided by screening and an HPV vaccination. With early detection, the five-year survival rate for cervical cancer is 92%. Each year, more than 12,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and approximately 4,000 people die from it.
Anyone with a cervix — the tissue that connects the uterus to the vagina — can get cervical cancer, regardless of your gender identity. Note that the cervix in Spanish is usually referred to as the uterine neck, or cuello uterino.
Of the over 12,000 people diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the United States, more than half have either never been screened or haven’t been screened in the past five years. Some people don’t know or aren’t sure when they should be screened. Cervical cancer screenings are a critical part of staying healthy, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Check with your health care provider about how you can get your HPV and/or Pap test with minimal risk.
Latinx and Black women suffer disproportionately from cervical cancer due to structural inequities in health care. It is essential to the health of communities of color all across the country that barriers to health care access are eliminated.
Your reproductive health care should be treated no differently than other forms of health care. Cervical cancer screenings — for all people with a cervix — are standard medical care.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s preventive health benefits, more people have access to cervical cancer screenings and other preventive care without copays or out-of-pocket expenses. Regardless of your health insurance status, affordable care is always available at Planned Parenthood health centers, where we perform over 255,000 cervical cancer screenings each year.
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Tags: cervical cancer, cervical health