There has been such a stirring in our health care system as of late over the subject of cervical cancer being caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that it causes one to question; is this really a medical break through? Many proclaim that the found connection will save hundreds of thousands if not millions of women. Many states in the USA are shouting for joy over a vaccine for this silent, but deadly infection. So shouldn't we all be happy about ending cervical cancer?
Unfortunately, if one does some digging and inquiring on the subject, a dark past is drudged up; a past that is now just beginning to come to light. The old adage, "don"t believe everything you hear' is more prevalent in our society than ever before; especially when it comes to our Health and Wellness. The dug up past says, “The advertisements and pamphlets handed out at your doctors' office are not telling the whole truth about HPV.”
First off, the connection between cervical cancer and HPV is nothing new or ground breaking. It has been well known and documented for over 20 years. This fact is stated very clearly in a book written by Dr. Robert Buckman called, “What you really need to know about Cancer”, printed in 1995; in which Dr. Buckman states that the connection between HPV and cervical cancer has been known for over a decade. If you do the math that means this information has been known by the medical community for 23 years.
Just to be sure I confronted a general practitioner doctor about the issue and he admitted that when he graduated from med school in 1994 they knew that HPV was 99.5-99.7% responsible for cervical cancer but they wanted to see how bad smoking and the birth control pill contributed.
That seems rather long to remain silent about the worlds most commonly spread Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI). According to the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) cervical cancer is the 11th most common cancer in Canada and the 2nd most common in the world.
With such daunting statistics its interesting that cervical cancer from HPV is actually rare, not common. The good news is that most people will build immunity to the virus within 3 -9 months. According to the CCS if you are sexually active your odds of contracting one of the 35 high risk HPVs that cause genital damage are 75%. If left untreated or undetected it can also affect other neighboring regions of the body besides the cervix causing cancer of the rectum, colon, bladder, kidneys, or uterus. (Possibly penile cancer, but the jury is still out on that one. Besides warts doctors don't know how exactly HPV affects men, or if it even does.)
It is an outrage that with such a rampantly spread virus that is basically undetectable (unless you have warts) or experience abnormal results on a pap smear, our medical community has been bullied into silence. It's true; the main reason for pap smears has always been to detect damage done by HPV. If you've had abnormal results even once, it is 99.7% guaranteed that it was from HPV. If you're lucky your body fixes itself, but if your immune response to the virus is slow you can expect cervical cancer several years down the road.
So how do you know if you're immune, or if you're going to be a statistic half a decade down the road? There's only one answer really, and it's rather sad. Doctors don't test for HPV immunity because eventually we all become immune, whether its 3 months away or decades away, but any damage done before immunity develops may still remain. Doctors are taught not to care about if or when you're immune, only to treat the outcome.
In the mean time you go for yearly pap's which may or may not detect damage from HPV. Pap's miss damaged cells all the time, that's why it's so important to go every year. Then if you do have advanced damage from HPV, surgery, chemo or radiation is your option depending on circumstances. (ie. A woman with cervical cancer who still wants to have children may opt to use chemo or radiation instead of surgery, so as to keep her cervix intact.)
So here's the fundamental question, why are we just hearing about this now? Doesn't it seem unethical to withhold such vital information, especially when it affects 400,000 Canadian women every year, and over 3.1 million women in the USA? Makes one wonder what would the numbers for worldwide be, doesn't it? The answer is very simple…it's all about the money!
