Amy “Sunshine” Rodriguez, 44, is a radio personality in West Hartford, Connecticut, who loves spending time at the shore enjoying the scenery and her family. The mother of two and grandmother of one found love at a young age and married her husband shortly after. Of the many tales to describe her “Sunshine” life, Rodriguez said she never thought a battle with cervical cancer would be among them.

Now a survivor of cervical cancer, she said she was “completely blindsided” when she was diagnosed. “When my gynecologist called my office to tell me the news, I just didn’t know what to say,” Rodriguez recalls. “I was shocked.”

Not too long ago, Rodriguez’s story would have been fairly common. Cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of cancer death among women. Today, however, it is one of the most preventable and rare cancers thanks largely to the introduction of the Pap test.

Even with the introduction of Pap testing, 12,000 women, like Rodriguez, are still diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. New changes in medical guidelines may leave some women confused about what to expect at their annual gynecological exams.

“For years, women were told ‘Get your Pap smear every year,’ and so they think that’s all they need. But now we know that many cases of cervical cancer are caused by some strains of human papillomavirus, also known as HPV,” explains Barbara Dehn, a well-known women’s health nurse practitioner and lecturer at Stanford University. “As such, screening for cervical cancer has evolved to include an HPV test in combination with a Pap test in women over 30, but women may not understand the importance of asking about both tests.”

When Rodriguez first heard and asked about HPV testing, she was told that she didn’t need the test because she had married young and her risk for developing an HPV infection — and therefore cervical cancer — was low, which is a common misconception. The reality is, having a long-term sexual partner cannot necessarily protect a woman from developing cervical cancer. It’s not uncommon for women or their partners to contract HPV from an earlier sexual encounter, with the virus remaining dormant for years without causing any problems. As many women often do, Rodriguez skipped her regular visit to her health care provider for a couple of years as she was healthy and young and didn’t think much of it. 

When Rodriguez did finally receive a Pap test after experiencing some symptoms, she was in disbelief when her results came back that she had cervical cancer. She resolved to not let the shock of her diagnosis or her subsequent surgeries and intensive treatments keep her down. She has committed herself to helping encourage women to take an active role in their cervical health.

“I decided during treatment that as long as I’m alive and have a voice, I need to help other women,” she says. “No woman should go through what I went through and, thankfully, no woman has to as long as she’s getting appropriate screening.”

What’s recommended today

Current “consensus guidelines” — screening recommendations created by a large group of recognized professional medical societies — recommend Pap+HPV Together as the preferred method for women ages 30 to 65. For women 21 to 29, guidelines recommend Pap-only testing.

The Pap and HPV tests contribute important and distinct information to understanding each woman’s risk of cervical cancer. Recent research shows that screening for cervical cancer with Pap+HPV Together detects more cancer and pre-cancer than either test used alone. Screening with HPV alone may put many women’s lives at risk.*

“There is a lot of information about HPV and cervical cancer out there, and that is why a dialogue about what tests you need during your exam is so important,” Dehn emphasized. “The bottom line is that co-testing with Pap and HPV tests at the same time provides the best possible protection against cervical cancer in women over 30. And, just one sample is taken for the lab to screen with both tests.”

Rodriguez also noted the power of having an informed discussion with a health care provider about screening options.

“I can’t tell you how important it is to educate yourself on all of your options and what you need, even if it seems a little confusing,” she says. “’You have cervical cancer’ is a scary phrase for any woman to stomach. Effective screening can help ensure fewer women have to.” 

To learn more about screening with Pap+HPV Together, visit PapPlusHPV.com.

* A positive HPV screening result may lead to further evaluation with cytology and/or colposcopy.

*BPT

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(BPT) – Every woman knows that in the world of fashion, there’s no such thing as “one size fits all.” Yet for decades, American women have seemingly accepted the “one size fits all” approach when it comes to dealing with reproductive health issues. This one-size approach has meant that each year, thousands of women undergo hysterectomies that they may not need.

About 600,000 women have hysterectomies each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet many of these highly invasive surgeries are medically unnecessary. And as more women realize they have options besides a hysterectomy, more women are seeking alternative solutions by consulting with their own doctors, tapping online medical resources, and discussing their experiences and options on websites like ChangetheCycle.com.

In 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are available, more than 90 percent of hysterectomies were performed for benign conditions; just 10 percent were done to treat cancer of the ovaries, uterus or cervix, according to a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. Among the most common benign conditions treated were fibroids (35 percent), heavy periods (30 percent), endometriosis and pelvic pain. The CDC notes that from 2000 to 2004, fibroid tumors, endometriosis and uterine prolapse were the three most common conditions associated with hysterectomy.

“If a patient does not feel comfortable with a recommendation for surgery, they should seek a second opinion,” says Dr. Jessica Shepherd, assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and director of minimally invasive gynecology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. “As a woman, I feel it is imperative that we feel we have options, today, women dealing with reproductive health issues such as heavy periods or fibroids have non-surgical treatment options available, too. These options come in medical and surgical forms and I always want my patients to know all of them.”

For example, fibroids or polyps in the uterus can be removed with a procedure called MyoSure, which requires no cutting into or removal of any part of the uterus. The procedure can help patients reduce heavy bleeding caused by polyps or fibroids while retaining a fully functional uterus. Heavy periods, which affect more than 10 million women, can be treated with the NovaSure procedure, a five-minute, non-surgical procedure that can be performed in your doctor’s office. For more than 90 percent of women, the procedure can dramatically reduce menstrual bleeding or even stop it altogether.

“This procedure works very well and can also be done in the office setting,” says Shepherd. “For every procedure, there are those patients that may not be a candidate for them and that is why a detailed conversation with your doctor is important. Feel comfortable asking questions and getting all the information you need.”

Some serious conditions may only be treatable by hysterectomy. According to the National Women’s Health Network (NWHN), these include: invasive cancer, unmanageable infection or bleeding, and serious complications during childbirth, such as rupture of the uterus. Shepherd also adds: “Fibroids do cause heavy bleeding and sometimes the size of the fibroid can be very large and they may require a more invasive surgery. Therefore it is important to talk to your gynecologist about your fibroids and all the options that can treat them.”

However, NWHN “believes that unnecessary hysterectomies have put women at risk needlessly, and that health care providers should recognize the value of a woman’s reproductive organs beyond their reproductive capacity and search for hysterectomy alternatives before resorting to life-changing operations,” according to the organization’s website.

“Before making any serious decision about a health issue, patients should consult their doctor and educate themselves as much as possible about their specific condition and their treatment options,” Shepherd says. “In the end, we as women should celebrate our bodies and having engaging dialogue with your gynecologist and other women only encourages healthy lifestyles. In my forum for women’s health care we discuss all the topics that you may not want to or feel embarrassed about. We want you to open up about these topics and feel empowered!”

Visit her Viewpoint with Dr. Shepherd on Facebook and Twitter at Facebook.com/HerViewpointCommunity, and Twitter.com/HerViewpoint.

To learn more about non-surgical treatment for heavy periods, polyps or fibroids, visit www.changethecycle.com.

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