Women Cancer Health Treatment

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection– transmitted during sex, is the most important risk factor for cervical cancer. Women sexual life risk factors include having sex at an early age, multiple sexual partners, and sex with uncircumcised males. You must be infected with HPV to get cervical cancer, but most women don’t get the disease.

Researchers from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine found that risk of cervical cancer in Holland is higher during sunny months. Women were twice as likely to be infected with HPV during sunny August than in the darker months of winter. Researchers looked for seasonal differences in HPV infections appearing in nearly one million Pap smears collected from 1983 to 1998.

HPV infections were 100 percent higher in August than in the winter months – the sunnier the month, the higher the HPV rate. The infections were not linked to sexual activity. Ultraviolet exposure from the sun may have depressed the immune system and lowered defenses a of women reproduction health against infection. Also, viruses exposed to UV rays become more powerful. This study is interesting but provides little useful information for preventing cervical cancer. The take-home message – if there is one – is to be very careful with whom you have sex.