What else can I do to prevent HPV & cancer of the cervix?
Abstaining from all sexual and intimate skin-to-skin contact is the only way to guarantee that you will be 100% safe from HPV.
Getting vaccinated will help protect you against four types of HPV.
Always using a condom when you have sexual contact, and practicing good sexual health habits, will help to ensure you do not get HPV.
Remember, if you are a woman, the best defense against cancer of the cervix is to have regular Pap tests. Having the vaccine does not mean you don’t need to have regular Pap tests. Doing both will help you protect yourself from the worst results of an HPV infection.
The link between Pap tests and HPV
Even after you are vaccinated for HPV, having regular Pap tests for cancer of the cervix is still very important. The chance that a woman will develop cancer of the cervix is much higher if she does not have regular Pap tests.
In Canada, screening tests like the Pap test have cut the number of cases of cancer of the cervix in half during the past 30 years. The number of women who have died has fallen by about 60%.
Do I still need to use a condom?
The short answer is yes. HPV spreads during skin-to-skin contact, even when people are not having sexual intercourse. You can get HPV from touching the skin around someone’s sex organs or anus. It can also be spread during oral sex. A condom does not cover all of a man’s sex organs, so it will not provide total protection from HPV.
Condoms provide excellent protection from many sexually transmitted infections. They should be used every time to get the most protection. But when it comes to HPV, a condom does not offer 100% protection.
Condoms help to protect you from pregnancy and from other things that increase your risk of getting cancer of the cervix, such as
- HIV
- herpes simplex type 2, and
- chlamydia.
Should I get an HPV test?
HPV testing is not widely used, for good reason. The DNA test for HPV that is currently available can tell if a woman has HPV, but it cannot say what kind it is. Is it the kind that will just go away by itself? Or is it the kind that could lead to genital warts, sores, or even cancer? Even if a person has one type of HPV, she could benefit from the broader protection offered by the HPV vaccines.
The only DNA test for HPV infection that has been approved by Health Canada is only used after tests show a woman has abnormal cells in her cervix. These abnormal cells would have been found through a Pap test. The DNA test may then be given to help the doctors decide how to best treat these abnormal cells.
Right now, the DNA test for HPV is not available in all parts of in Canada.
