How far is cervical cancer, the number one killer of women's health, from you? Do you still dare to take it lightly?

Cervical cancer is a common malignant tumor in women. One Chinese person dies from cervical cancer every 15 minutes.

How scary is cervical cancer?

A beautiful woman ended her life with cervical cancer.

In the early morning of December 30, 2003, the ever-changing singing queen Anita Mui passed away due to cervical cancer at the age of 40, leaving the entire Chinese music and film industry with regret. It was also from that time that most people began to learn about cervical cancer.

Image source: Internet

Later, Song Wenfei, who once starred in Hai Yan's "Dancer", was born in 1985 and died of cervical cancer in March 2013 at the age of 28.

Song Wenfei

Li Yuanyuan, a national first-class actor who starred in the TV series "Fortress Besieged" in 1990, died of cervical cancer in 2002 at the age of 41.

In 2007, 40-year-old Japanese singer Izumi Sakai died of cervical cancer; 27-year-old actor Jed Goody, who stood out in the reality show "Big Brother", also died of cervical cancer...

Among the malignant tumors of the female reproductive tract in my country, cervical cancer has the highest incidence rate and is also the second largest female malignant tumor in my country, posing a serious threat to women's health.

What exactly is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is the most common gynecological tumor, originating from cervical intraepithelial lesions and caused by persistent infection with high-risk HPV (human papillomavirus). The transformation zone is a common site for cervical cancer. The peak age for cervical cancer is 50 to 55 years old.

HPV is a cause of disease. Being infected with the HPV virus does not quickly develop into cervical cancer. It needs to go through a three-step progression of "HPV infection" - "precancerous lesions" - "cervical cancer", which takes about 8-10 years.

What are the symptoms of cervical cancer?

Early cervical cancer often has no obvious symptoms and signs, and is easily missed, resulting in late-stage cervical cancer being diagnosed, which greatly reduces the patient's survival rate. As the lesion progresses, the following manifestations may occur:

(1) Vaginal bleeding: It often manifests as contact bleeding, i.e. vaginal bleeding after sexual intercourse or gynecological examination, or prolonged menstruation or increased menstrual flow. Elderly patients often have irregular vaginal bleeding after menopause. The amount of bleeding varies depending on the size of the lesion and the extent of invasion of the interstitial blood vessels. If the lesion erodes large blood vessels, it may cause heavy bleeding.

(2) Vaginal discharge: Most patients have vaginal discharge that is white or bloody, thin, watery or rice-like, and has a fishy odor. Late-stage patients may have a large amount of rice-like or purulent leucorrhea due to necrosis of cancerous tissue and infection.

It is worth noting that the symptoms of late-stage cervical cancer often include frequent urination, urgency, constipation, swelling and pain in the lower limbs, etc. Some patients also experience symptoms of systemic failure such as anemia and cachexia.

Cervical cancer ≠ undisciplined lifestyle

Being infected with HPV does not mean that you have an immoral lifestyle. Even if you only have one sexual partner in your life, you may still be infected with HPV.

Having HPV infection does not mean that he, she or their sexual partners have sex outside of their relationship.

What kind of people are prone to cervical cancer?

1) People who have many sexual partners

2) People who gave birth at an early age or had their first sexual intercourse too early (before the age of 16)

3) Those who have too many sexual behaviors and childbirths, and have repeated artificial abortions

4) Women who have sexual contact with men at high risk of penile cancer, prostate cancer or whose sexual partners have had cervical cancer are also prone to cervical cancer.

In addition, malnutrition and poor sanitary conditions may also affect the occurrence of the disease.

How to prevent the "paper tiger" cervical cancer?

On November 17, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, which is the first time in the world's history that the world has committed to eliminating a cancer. The strategy announced three key measures: vaccination, screening and treatment. The HPV preventive vaccine can achieve primary prevention of cervical cancer, and it is currently the only cancer vaccine in the world. The birth of the vaccine has made cervical cancer a disease that can be effectively prevented by vaccination, just like hepatitis B, influenza, and meningitis.

There are currently three types of vaccines, namely bivalent, quadrivalent and nonavalent, based on the number of HPV virus types they prevent.

The bivalent HPV vaccine can prevent cervical cancer and related precancerous lesions caused by HPV genotypes 16 and 18 (accounting for about 70% of all cervical cancer cases). It is suitable for women aged 9-45.

In addition to preventing cervical cancer and related precancerous lesions caused by HPV virus infection with genotypes 16 and 18, the quadrivalent HPV vaccine can also prevent anal and genital warts caused by HPV virus infection with genotypes 6 and 11 (accounting for about 90% of all anal and genital warts cases) and is suitable for women aged 20-45.

The nine-valent HPV vaccine is an upgraded version of the four-valent HPV vaccine. In addition to the above-mentioned genotypes 6, 11, 16, and 18, it can also prevent cervical cancer and related precancerous lesions caused by HPV virus infection of the five genotypes 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 (accounting for about 90% of all cervical cancer cases). It is suitable for women aged 16-26.

The higher the valence number, the more HPV types it can prevent. Female friends also need to get vaccinated according to their own situation.

HPV vaccination precautions

● Women who are planning to become pregnant, currently pregnant, or breastfeeding should not be vaccinated

● People who are allergic to protein or yeast, have acute severe infection or current fever, or have severe systemic diseases should not be vaccinated

● After the vaccination, please hold the injection site and rest for about 15 minutes. You can leave on your own. After the injection, you can take a bath and get wet as usual at night.

●Avoid lifting heavy objects in the injected arm within seven days. You may feel sore for a few days.

● No swimming within seven days, no need to exercise your arms vigorously

●Some people may experience dizziness or fever, which is normal and there is no need to panic

● Vaccination is also available during menstruation. If there are any physical abnormalities, a doctor will need to make an on-site assessment and decision.

●You can have sex during the injection period but you need to use contraception

Contraindications for 9-valent vaccination

●Don’t give a shot when you have a fever

● Those who are already pregnant or planning to get pregnant within six months should not get the vaccine. If you find out you are pregnant after getting the vaccine, you should stop taking the subsequent injections. You can continue with the other injections after giving birth. It is recommended to wait six months before getting pregnant. For breastfeeding women, please get the vaccine after you stop breastfeeding.

●People who are allergic to protein, cheese, bread and yeast should not take the vaccine

● If you have had any surgery [especially abortion, uterine surgery (including minimally invasive surgery)], you must wait six months before getting the vaccine

● Do not take medicine for a few days before and after the injection. Do not drink alcohol, eat seafood or spicy food on the day of the injection.

● If urticaria has not recurred within five years, you can get the vaccine; however, if it has recurred recently or needs medication to control it, you cannot get the vaccine.

● Women with cervical cancer or precancerous lesions, or precancerous lesions of vulvar cancer should not get vaccinated

● Those who have had allergic reactions to the two-valent, four-valent, and nine-valent vaccines should not be vaccinated

● Bleeding problems, such as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (TIP), thrombocytopenia