The Facts

Cervical cancer kills almost 3 women every day in the UK¹. It is the most common cancer in women aged 20-29 and the second most common cancer in women under 35 years old.^12,13 Almost all cases are caused by a common virus called HPV, and up to 75% of women who are, or have been, sexually active are likely to be infected with the virus at some time in their lives.^2,8,19,20 You could catch the virus, called HPV, as soon as you start having intimate relationships - either through sexual intercourse or from intimate skin-to-skin contact in the genital area. It is possible to catch it from just one sexual experience.³ The more people you or your partner have sex with, the more likely you are to catch the virus. The virus is usually cleared naturally but sometimes it persists inside the cells of the cervixand could cause abnormal cells to develop. If these cells are left undetected and untreated, they could go on to develop into cervical cancer.⁴

Cervical cancer could mean that you may no longer be able to have children.²¹ For women who plan to have children in the future or those who would like to go on to have more children, this news can often be more difficult to come to terms with than the cervical cancer diagnosis itself.

What you can do

You can reduce your risk by leading a healthy lifestyle and going for regular cervical smear tests when invited by your GP surgery (at age 25 in England, 20 in the rest of the UK).^5,6,17

Cervical screening helps identify changes in the cells of the cervix that could go onto develop into cancer, so that appropriate treatment can be started, if needed. Many lives have been saved because the disease has been caught at an early stage as a direct result of cervical screening.²²

If you are over 18 years old, you can speak to your GP, nurse or high street pharmacist about local availability of vaccination

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