{"id":225474,"date":"2010-01-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/25\/its-cervical-health-awareness-month-are-you-protecting-yours"},"modified":"2010-01-25T10:06:38","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T15:06:38","slug":"its-cervical-health-awareness-month-are-you-protecting-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/225474","title":{"rendered":"It’s Cervical Health Awareness Month: Are You Protecting Yours?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nAt age 22, the inter-workings of my cervix are not something I think
\nabout on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.\u00a0 <\/span>Rather, the only time I really ponder it is at my yearly
\ngynecological check up when I am having a surge of anxiety that something \u201cdown
\nthere\u201d could<\/em> be<\/em> or might<\/em> be <\/em>wrong.\n<\/p>\n

\nAlthough I work in the
\nreproductive health, rights and justice field, and am pretty well versed in all
\nthings reproductive, I sometimes forget the real importance of the cervix itself.\u00a0 <\/span>For my generation, discussions about
\nthe cervix and cervical health are overshadowed by hype around the HPV vaccines
\nand cervical cancer.\u00a0 <\/span>There is
\nlittle knowledge about the cervix as part of women\u2019s overall reproductive
\nhealth and wellbeing.\u00a0 <\/span>However, I
\nwas recently reminded that January is Cervical
\nHealth Awareness Month<\/em>, and decided to take this opportunity to find out why
\nthe cervix is important to reproductive health.\u00a0 <\/span>January was designated Cervical
\nHealth Awareness Month<\/em> by the U.S. Congress as a means to raise awareness
\nof this preventable disease and promote early detection through screening.\n<\/p>\n

\nSo why do we need to
\nbe aware of the cervix?<\/em>\u00a0 <\/span>Here
\nare a few of the cervix\u2019s key
\nfunctions<\/a>: 1) allows the passage of menstrual fluid; 2) promotes fertility;
\n3) protects the uterus, upper reproductive tract, and a developing fetus from
\npathogens; and lastly, 4) plays a possible role in women\u2019s sexual pleasure. \u00a0<\/span>Clearly the cervix is an important part
\nof women\u2019s reproductive health and we want to keep it healthy, but in doing so
\nwe must also understand its health threats.\u00a0 <\/span>You are probably already aware of HPV and its relation to
\ncervical cancer, but what people my age might not realize is that other sexually
\ntransmitted infections (STIs) also pose a huge risk to cervical health.\u00a0 <\/span>Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and HIV are all
\nbad news for the cervix, especially since the cervix acts as the primary site
\nof infection.\u00a0 <\/span>Undetected Gonorrhea or Chlamydia<\/a> can lead to long-term
\nreproductive health problems, some as serious as infertility. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nHow can we maintain
\ncervical health with all these threats?<\/em> \u00a0<\/span>Although the HPV vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil, are the
\nmost widely touted methods for preventing cervical cancer and maintaining
\ncervical health, there is another way to keep your cervix healthy- the Pap test <\/strong>(or pap smear).\u00a0 <\/span>Since the existence of the Pap
\nsmear<\/a>, deaths from cervical cancer have dropped 74%.\u00a0 <\/span>Although the Pap smear is not entirely
\nfull proof, and has its share of false positive and false negative readings, we
\ncannot discount the importance of it as a screening tool.\u00a0 <\/span>Recently, ACOG reformed its guidelines<\/a><\/span>
\nto suggest that women should not start getting the pap test until age 21 and
\nthen continue to do so every other year until 30.\u00a0 <\/span>However, yearly visits to the gynecologist are still
\nsuggested.\u00a0 <\/span>Cervical health is not
\nsolely contingent on whether one has HPV, and yearly testing for STIs,
\nincluding, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia and HIV are a necessary component to ensure your
\nbest cervical health.\n<\/p>\n

\nWith nearly 4,000<\/a>
\nwomen dying every year of cervical cancer, and Chlamydia on the rise as one of
\nthe most common STIs, maintaining one\u2019s cervical health is incredibly
\nimportant.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead of using only
\none month to expand awareness of cervical health, we should use everyday to encourage
\nwomen of all ages, and ourselves, to not only know the importance of the
\ncervix, but also the ways to maintain a healthy cervix.\u00a0 <\/span>So what\u2019s my new year\u2019s resolution?\u00a0 <\/span>Easy, spreading the word about what it
\nmeans to have a healthy cervix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At age 22, the inter-workings of my cervix are not something I think about on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.\u00a0 Rather, the only time I really ponder it is at my yearly gynecological check up when I am having a surge of anxiety that something \u201cdown there\u201d could be or might be wrong. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}