Word: cervix
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...more than 50 different strains of HPV, some only cause warts, but others have been conclusively linked to pre-malignant and malignant growths in the cervix...
...first noticeable cellular difference in the cervix is subtle change in the shape of cells as they begin to enlarge. Later, the standard arrangement of cells gets destroyed as diseased cells begin to grow out of control...
Early diagnosis is important, and women are recommended to get annual Pap tests, where cells that line the cervix are gently scraped off and examined under a microscope...
Still, an ounce of prevention--or at least early detection--is worth a gallon of cancer-fighting drugs. Ever since the introduction in the 1950s of the Pap-smear test, which allows doctors to detect changes in the cervix before the tissue becomes malignant, both the incidence of cervical cancer and its death rate have plummeted in industrialized countries. (One out of two American women who develop invasive cervical cancer have not had a Pap test in the preceding five years.) Unfortunately, cervical cancer is more common in poorer parts of the world, and among underinsured and uninsured Americans...
...infected women develop the malignancy.) If you have normal tests three years in a row, you may, at your doctor's discretion, begin having them less frequently. But don't be fooled into thinking you no longer need a Pap smear after menopause. As long as you have a cervix, you need to get tested...