to get very fed up with my mother

[stoppinattwo]

who refuses to believe that any woman could get cervical cancer, it doesnt have a reason to choose its victims...hence the programme of smear testing....she says that only "those sort of women!!" get it, ie promiscuous...is this a generation thing??, did they really believe this in the bad old days, god Im glad I never listened to her, even now after explaining to her that it is completely different to and STD she insists she is right..

Well in a way she is right in that nuns very rarely get it ,however anyone who has had more than one partner could get it ,so in that respect she is wrong .I guess it depends what you class as promiscious ?

I thought that the idea that those who
started sexual activities early
had multiple partners

was a fairly new one?

So age wouldnt excuse your mum.

I have heard women who have had C Ca express the view that they feel judged. How sad.

There will always be people that think illness is someone's fault. Ditto for misscarraige and stillbirth unfortunately.

Even my DD's luekemian . I have been asked 'why did she get it?' . As if I fecking know! Sometimes they may even helpfully suggest reasons i.e did you leave the lights on when she went to bed?

Sorry turning into a rant here!

sorry ,i mean that you are more likely to get the virus that in many cases causes cervical cancer if you have had more than one sexual partner . However the whole point of the screening is that it usually takes a very long time for the virus to cause the cells to mutate to malignant and is therefore very very treatable if caught in its earlier stages .

oh and people who have partners who are circumscised are less likely to get the virus aswell ,as there is nowhere that isnt cleaned properly ,if you see what i mean ,tmi

A very close friend of mine had cervical cancer She did alot of reading and researchon it and she told me it is caused by the HPV virus which is sexually transmitted.

(Not sure if those initials for the virus are correct because I have a bad memory, but it's somethin like that. This is why you are asked to have smear tests after you become sexually active)

You are more likely to develop cervical cancer if you...

smoke
start to have sex at an early age
have many sexual partners, or have a partner who has had many partners
have taken the contraceptive pill long-term
have a weakened immune system

HVP virus is passed on through sexual contact mostly the virus is killed by the womans immune system but a small proportion develop cancer...although some women develop cervical cancer without any of the factors above.

thankyou for your explanations....ok maybe she is right .

I didnt realise that all of these factors could increase your chances...

chegirl...am sorry about your DD, what stupid questions people ask, but I cna only suppose it is out of not being able to think of anything else to say

I dont think mum is right if she is suggesting that you have to be a slapper to get Ca.

Its twisting the research somewhat

Thanks - I know people dont mean to be horrible but they do come out with some stonkers at times.

no yanbu, because although cervical cancer is caused by HPV virus that means that you can be unlucky enough to have sex with one man and still get it. I wish you were right about it being a generational thing but sadly the attitude is still live and kicking today - witness the fuss about 12yo getting the hpv vaccination because "it will make them promiscuous" FFS.

Yeah right cos teenagers will stop and think 'oh I can have sex whenever I like because now I wont get cancer in 10 years time'

If kids were that rational we wouldnt have such a high teen pg rate would we

As with any STD, you can get it if you have sex once, or a lot. THink of all those poor women of previous generations who contracted syphillus and gonorrhea (SP, I know) having been virgins but caught it off their husbands who had just played the field. Whose babies caught it during birth, all because they were knew so little.

The good old days when women were pure and men were blameless lasted for about five minutes during the 50s. Before that women suffered dreadfully from ignorance and prejudice.

My grandmother died of this before I was born, and as far as I know was a pretty respectable citizen, so although it's good to educate our kids about minimizing risks, it's not great to sound judgemental either.

Chegirl - 'did you leave the lights on when she went to bed' FFS - how did you stop yourself lamping them one???

My friend had CC. Her husband was playing away and she didn't know - until it was too late She's ok now (thankfully), but still has to have check ups, couldn't have mroe children and has lots of other problems now because of this.