Word: cervix
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...that of the bonobo, is not as tightly coupled to reproduction as certain pro-family moralists like to think. Even in so-called primitive hunter-gatherer societies, such as that of the Australian Aborigines, women have always managed to invent forms of contraception--herbal drinks, pessaries to block the cervix, oils to bog down the sperm. Then there is homosexuality, a reproductively senseless but nevertheless deeply compelling sexual strategy for millions of both sexes. Not to mention masturbation, celebrated by rapper Foxy Brown's chart-topping song Ill Na Na, in which she promises to "hold my own like...
Advances in diagnostic exams and hormone treatments have drastically cut the incidence of cancer of the uterus, ovaries and cervix over the past five decades. Pap smears that detect abnormal cells in the cervix before they become malignant have contributed to a 75% drop in cervical cancer since the 1950s. Wider use of birth control pills and hormonereplacement therapy (with estrogen and progestin) have decreased the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers. Recent research also suggests that in some cases, a low-fat diet can cut the risk of cervical cancer even further...
...just the fourth time in the past 10 years, the National Cancer Institute last week called for an immediate change in the way doctors treat a particular type of cancer. The disease in question is cancer of the cervix, located at the opening of the uterus. Researchers at the institute recommended attacking moderately advanced cases with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation rather than the current standard of radiation alone. This new thinking is based on the results of five as-yet-unpublished studies of 1,900 women with cervical cancer, which show that simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation reduced...
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...