January Is Cervical Health Awareness Month
Happy new year! We hope you’re enjoying the first days of 2018 and planning for a happy, fruitful year ahead – and if you’re like many Americans, you’re using the opportunity of the new year to think about your health and how you can maintain a healthy lifestyle moving into 2018. Beyond the usual regimen of diet and exercise, cancer prevention is a great goal to incorporate into your health-related New Year’s resolutions, and something we here at Pasadena CyberKnife Center often work to promote. January also happens to be Cervical Health Awareness Month – so if you’re a woman looking to make cancer prevention a bigger part of your life, now is the perfect time to start.
Preventing Cancer by Promoting Cervical Health
More than 13,000 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year in the US –and almost every single case is preventable. Unlike most cancers, cervical cancer is almost always preventable through HPV vaccination and regular screenings like Pap smears and HPV tests. This means that by focusing on maintaining cervical health, you can dramatically reduce your risk for cervical cancer – and working together, we can reduce the number of cervical cancer cases across the country.
The most important thing is to get an HPV vaccination if you haven’t already had one. This will prevent Human Papillomavirus, the most common sexually-transmitted infection (STI) and a major cause of cervical cancer. It’s also critical to note that the HPV vaccination isn’t just for women and girls: men can also contract HPV, and many may not show symptoms even though they can still transmit the virus. That means that Cervical Health Awareness month isn’t just for women – men have an important role to play.
Beyond that, it’s important to get Pap smears and HPV tests on a regular basis. For most women, that usually means getting a test every 3 years – but you should talk with your doctor to determine the best regimen for you based on your personal risk level.
Schedule a Consultation with Your Pasadena Radiation Therapy Center
This January, we hope you’ll take some time to think about how cancer prevention can play a larger role in your life – and if you haven’t taken steps to protect the health of your cervix and prevent cervical cancer, now is the time. If you’d like to learn more about cancer prevention, we encourage you to contact us with any questions. And if you or someone you love has recently been diagnosed with cancer, we may be able to help with non-invasive treatments like CyberKnife. Feel free to call us at 626.768.1021 to learn more, and no matter what your history with cancer, we wish you a healthy, cancer-free 2018!