Cervical cancer and sex.

[Kupek]

Back in high school, one of the snippets of information "learned" in my annual health classes was that the earlier a girl starts having sex, the more likely she is to get cervical cancer later on in life.

Seeing as how these courses were essentially propaganda machines spouting "Don't have sex, don't do drugs," I have doubts about the validity of the claim. I don't think they'd blatantly lie to their students, but it could be possible that a suspect study was made, and the results reported as fact.

Does anyone know if that is the case?

[bibliophage]

Many cases of cervical cancer is related to a virus, which is sexually transmitted. Evidence supports a sexual mode of transmission of a carcinogen and human papillomavirus (HPV) is strongly implicated epidemiologically as the main infectious etiologic agent.
source: National Cancer Institute


Early sexual activity has long been associated with increased rates of cervical cancer. A study by Lombard and Potter in 1950 found that woman who married before the age of 20 had twice the risk of developing cervical cancer as those who married later. In addition, a 1952 study of 13,000 nuns found no cases of carcinoma of the cervix. These studies and others published to date emphasize the same theme: the importance of sexual history. Much of the epidemiologic data reported suggests cervical carcinoma to be venereal in origin with incidence increasing relative to the number of sexual partners. A 1981 study found that women married to men whose previous wives died of cervical cancer had three times the risk of developing carcinoma of the cervix regardless of their past history. This supports the belief that there must be an organism or substance passed through intimate contact associated with the development of cervical cancer. source: http://www.acsh.org/publications/priorities/0403/cancer.html

[TroubleAgain]

I had my own little scare with abnormal pap smears a while back. I had a pre-cancerous condition called dysplasia. Apparently, it's not that uncommon in women my age (30-ish at the time), especially those who haven't had children (I'm not sure what that has to do with it...) In my research, I found a few interesting things:

1. HPV, as sited above, is a major factor in dysplasia/cervical cancer. Know the sexual history of your partner, if you can. You really don't want to be exposed to HPV if you can help it. Short term, it may not be that bad. Long term, it can have serious implications.

2. Women who have dysplasia should not have sex with a man who smokes, because the nicotine is excreted in semen and it's really not a good idea to bathe an area that's already pre-cancerous in nicotine. (I'd try to find the site on that, but I'm at work and don't have time right now...just do a search on dysplasia and it'll probably come up in there.)

Now, 2 or 3 years later, after a regular biopsy and a LEEP procedure, I have had clean pap-smears for 2 years (every 6 months is standard for that period) and can breath a sigh of relief.

Sorry if this is too much information, but I believe all the information we can get is still not enough information... :) As far as what you were taught in school, I have no evidence either way, but I waited a long time to have sex, and got dysplasia anyway. A friend of mine had sex a lot younger, and she got it anyway, too. :rolleyes:

[handy]

Sure, search for 'HPV' on the board, we wrote about this before, then when you find it, you can respond & the topic should show up for us to look at.

It's true, too.

[bibliophage]

handy can't be bothered to find his own thread, and so leaves it to us lesser mortals. :rolleyes: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=20277

[handy]

bibliophage, thanks, I have brought it back many times already.

[Kupek]

What I (and others) have been told wasn't the full story then. The way it was presented to us was that something to do with the physical act of sex was the cause of cervical cancer, not an STD. They didn't even mention a virus, which makes a hell of a lot more sense.

[handy]

Cuz they didn't know it was a virus. The did not find out it was until about 15 years ago. Then they found out it was HPV 16 & 18.

Now almost all doctors [some say all doctors] say every case of it is because of those two viruses. I met a girl who has it recently & that's how I found so much information on it.

Not even condoms protect from HPV. nuts.

Plus, dig this, they estimate 70% of us have it. There is no test for men [although might be now] & only for women can it be found from a pap smear.

[Kupek]

I'm a sophomore in college, so I'm sure they knew this my sophomore year of high school.

[Yeah]

I would hate to believe that your high school social hygiene teachers were trying to pull one over on you but...

The fact is that:

1. Cervical cancer epidemiology strongly suggests that most cases are associated with a sexually transmitted agent.

2. The best candidates for a sexually transmitted agent that causes cervical cancer (as well as penile and anal cancer) are a couple of strains of human papillomavirus (HPV).

4. In studes of the the epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), one of the strongest "risk factors" for having an STD is reporting an early onset for "sexual debut." (This means that if you test, say, 100 women for a sexually transmitted disease and you ask them all how old they were when they first had sex, the prevalence of infection among that group of women who report first having sex before age 18 will almost certainly be higher than the prevalence among that group of women who report not having sex until they were over 18.) However, I am SURE your high school teachers didn't mean to imply that just HAVING sex at a young age CAUSES cervical cancer. What causes cervical cancer is almost certainly certain strains of HPV. To get cervical cancer you have to have sex with someone who is infected with one of those strains. Having sex with a virgin, for instance, won't work. However, your chance of getting infected with HPV increases every time you have a new sexual partner and since people who start having sex early generally have more sex partners and more "high risk" sex partners than people who start having sex later, people who start having sex earlier are generally at higher risk of getting cervical cancer than people who less exposed to HPV because they have fewer sex partners.

Many sex educators seem to have trouble understanding the concept that sex does not equal STD risk. Having sex is necessary but not sufficient for getting an STD.

[Kupek]

Hygiene? Ha. The class was mainly focused on stopping kids from having sex or doing drugs. You should have seen one of the videos they showed, where two teenagers almost have sex, but are so remorsefuly thankful later that they don't.

However, I am SURE your high school teachers didn't mean to imply that just HAVING sex at a young age CAUSES cervical cancer.

Don't be so sure of that. I have a habit of remembering tid-bits of information, and this was one of them. I would have rememberd if they mentioned STDs, which they did not. If they knew that STDs were a part of it, and didn't say that, we can't know the motives for sure, but I can make my guesses.

[handy]

Yeah, those are HPV #16 & #18.

Chances for having sex after finding you have them are zippo. Condoms won't protect from these two, they are in the skin. If you want to have sex, you have to choose one partner & let them know you have it & ask them if they want to take the risk.

Just think, having lots of sex partners used to be an 'in' thing.

[Yeah]

Handy: "Yeah, those are HPV #16 & #18."

I don't think the numbers of the particular HPV types that are associated with cervical dysplasia and cancer are of much interest to most readers of this board. But if you really want to know, the types most closely associated with cervical cancers are 16, 18, 31, 33 and 45.

[handy]

They found some more? Hmmmm. Im pretty sure I read that it takes about 20 years for symtoms to show up. Thus, a girl who starts sex early is going to show signs of it earlier.