Birth Control And Cervical Cancer

| Tuesday, January 3, 2012
By Owen Jones


Birth control is a large issue, there is no doubt of that and women are more aware than ever that having children is not a compulsory result of having sex. They are also conscious that having children at the wrong time can ruin their careers and they are also conscious that passions or alcohol can get in the way of safe sex using condoms very often.

This results in women taking care of the vast majority of birth control by taking 'the pill'. The contraceptive pill caused an uproar in the Sixties with the Establishment and the Churches predicting the downfall of society and morality. And after a fashion, they were correct. But what happened was to sweep away a great deal of social barriers and privileges that previously just the rich (and men) had enjoyed. The 'old order' lost a bit of ground.

The problem with the manner that women took control of their sex lives was or is twofold: firstly, men leave 'that sort of thing' to the woman and secondly, taking the pill can lead to cervical cancer. The likelihood of acquiring cervical cancer from taking the pill are small (15,000 Americans a year, of which a third dies), but they do exist.

However, there are no recorded cases of men contracting cancer from using a condom.

Women usually contract cervical cancer from having sex. They pick up the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Most of the time, the woman's immune system will prevent that virus from causing cancer, but research has shown that women who take the pill for more than five years in a row have a higher risk than women who have not.

So a condom would help here.

Unfortunately, there are no symptoms in the early stages of cervical cancer, but later on, there may be heavier losses of blood, pain after sexual intercourse and even unpleasant smells. Periods could also last a lot longer than 'normal'.

The difficulty with studies is that, there often comes another study to prove something else and this is true here too. Some studies have shown that the use of the contraceptive pill lessens the occurrence of ovarian cancer.

It is like old sayings, there is always a opposite, as in: 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' and 'Familiarity breeds contempt'.

If you listen to the 'experts', you would be in a lasting state of dilemma. Therefore, the only really safe course to take is to go for regular tests or screenings - at least once a year, unless your doctor or gynecologist tells you different and if he or she does, query it.

The pharmaceutical firms have been promising a male contraceptive pill or implant for decades. In fact, the pill might even be there. But that is not the point normally. The difficulty is normally men. The majority of men cannot be depended upon to supply adequate contraception while they are concerned in casual relationships.

As long as this situation continues, women will continue to take risks so that they are not bogged down by a family of a dozen kids like their great-grandmothers were.




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