This Almost 100% Preventable Cancer Is Still Killing Women in America -- What Can We Do?

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http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/almost-100-preventable-cancer-still-killing-women-america-what-can-we-do



Edna Lugo, 38, was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was 31 after seeing a doctor about unusual cramps and bleeding. It wasn't until she became ill that she discovered there was a history of cervical cancer in her family.

“I'm Puerto Rican. It's like a taboo. Nobody wants to talk about anything,” she says. Lugo believes that because HPV is an STD, people are afraid to be considered promiscuous. “Even to this day, people ask if I had a lot of partners,” she says. She believes the issue of sex among adults can be very difficult to broach, let alone between adults and children.

This kind of silence can be deadly. Though cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers, every year, about 12,000 women in the United States are diagnosed, and about 4,000 will die as a result. Cervical cancer is also the second most common type of cancer among women worldwide.

Latinas and African-American women in the United States have the highest rates and are most likely to die than any other group. While Latinas consistently had the highest rates, a report by the Centers for Disease Control updated in August 2013 shows that cervical cancer is now slightly more common among African-American women.