Helen Lobato
http://www.informyourself.com.au/
Beware of Gardasil, The Cervical Cancer Vaccine by Helen Lobato
Cervical Cancer
Vaccine?
When a woman undergoes a Pap smear a number of cells are collected from her
cervix which are examined for changes which may be early warning signs that
cancer can develop. Whether the tests are an accurate test of a woman’s
gynaecological health or not is up for debate with Pap smears producing
false-negative rate of 15% to 20%
I developed an interest in The Pap
Smear Test in 1980’s after I received a phone call from my local GP informing me
that my recent Pap Smear test was abnormal At a visit to my gynecologist I was
told I had cervical dysplasia. This is also called cervical intraepithelial
neoplasia. CIN or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia can be graded into CIN I,
CIN II and CIN III. The Common belief is that these abnormal cells if left
untreated will develop into cancer.
The next invasive and painful
procedure that was inflicted upon my body and my naïve self was that of a
colposcopy. This has to be one of the most degrading and painful procedures
known to woman. I describe it as like being seated in a dentist’s chair only
what is in the air is your vagina which is opened up and into which a male
doctor peers into the cervix. The reason for this excrutiating experience is to
take a biopsy of these cervical cells. I was told this would not be painful.
Other than childbirth itself, I have yet to experience such agonising pain as he
sunk his sharp blade into my cervix and lifted out my wayward cells. The
recommended treatment was a hysterectomy. Being thirty- five years old and the
mother of three children it was assumed that I would not want to mother again so
let’s just whip out the uterus! Thank goodness I sought a second opinion on the
necessity or otherwise of a hysterectomy.