The high risk Human Papilloma Virus is a sexually transmitted disease. It’s terribly, terribly common, and almost anybody who has had sex has been exposed to it. So it doesn’t, it’s not a mark of promiscuity. It doesn’t mean that you were unhygienic or anything like that. So I suppose, by extrapolation, because we know that HPV causes CIN, you could say that CIN is sexually transmitted.

We know that CIN is caused by the wart virus, the Human Papilloma Virus. The high risk Human Papilloma Virus. Now this is not the same virus that causes genital warts. It’s a slightly different virus; it’s of the same family. It doesn’t cause any visible abnormalities. The thing with high risk Human Papilloma Virus is a lot of people are exposed to it. But most people manage to clear it with their immune system.

The things that increase the risk of CIN or cervical cancer is smoking, because that affects the immune system in the cervix and leads the Human Papilloma Virus to persist and cause the abnormal cell changes which can then develop into CIN3 or cervical cancer. So if people want to know what they can do to protect themselves, I think stopping smoking is the single most important thing.

Does diet or anything else come into it? Women often ask can I make changes to my diet or anything else?

I think there’s no direct evidence, but certainly a healthy diet just helps to keep you well, helps to keep your immune system in good check and therefore it’s just generally good advice. You know, alcohol in moderation, no smoking, and a good healthy diet. And going for your screening when you’re called.

I’d say that there’s a stigma attached to cervical cancer and CIN, and pre-cancer. That you are promiscuous. And a lot of the websites, when you read about the causes of CIN and cervical cancer, it says, there’s a few things it’s like smoking, being on the contraceptive pill, being promiscuous throughout your sexual life, being promiscuous.

And it makes you think, it makes you feel a bit dirty. it’s like, and I think it has been known before as like the dirty cancer, and it’s just simply not true. it’s so not true. You can catch HPV virus from one sexual encounter. You don’t even have to have sexual intercourse. it’s from genital to genital contact, so if people look down on you and think that you’ve been a bit, you know, you’ve been sleeping around, it’s just simply not true. And I think that really needs addressing.

I think it’s, you know, I think ladies feeling ashamed that they have pre-cancer of the cervix or cervical cancer is just absolutely disgusting. I just don’t think anybody should be made to feel like that at all. it’s awful. And that there is a stigma attached to it, there definitely is. You know, you sometimes feel ashamed to say well I’ve had like pre-cancerous cells of the cervix. Because people think you’ve been sleeping around, and it’s just so not true. it’s so not true.

I read on the internet some of the causes and the HPV virus and that sort of thing. And you kind of see it on the TV as well, and that causes it. And that was one of the things that was a bit difficult because, you know, my mum thinks that, you know, I’ve been a woman of loose morals. And that’s a really difficult thing that’s, that’s kind of a bit of a stigma about it.

And I know that another friend of mine who, a few months after me, she had a diagnosis with mild, CIN1 I think. And she moved abroad and had her mail directed to her mum, so she only found out about that from her mum telling her. And then her mum gave her a right lecture. And so it’s kind of got a bit of a stigma attached to it.

How did you feel about the whole HPV thing?

Well that was a little bit of a tricky one because my boyfriend was going, Well what is this? Have you given it to me? Have you? And it was actually when I first, when I had my first abnormal smear which showed minor changes, and I went to the doctor and I said, So what is HPV? Is it an STD? And she said, Well it’s not really. I said, Okay, so what is it? And she said, Well you, you know, you contract it from having sex. And I said, So that is an STD? She’s like, Well, and again it’s quite difficult. I think it’s, I still can’t really explain in my mind what it is.

And I was saying well can I pass it onto my partner? And she said, No. But then I don’t know how, I still don’t understand it because obviously it can because that’s how it gets passed around.

So do you think there should be more information?

Yeah. Because I mean I’ve read about it until, you know, till the end of the earth and I still don’t quite get it. Because it seems that it’s something that you can pass on. You can pass it on even when you do use protection, can’t you? Because it’s just skin contact.

So anyway, so that was a bit of like a tough one to tackle with my boyfriend, because he was saying, Well have I got it, have you given it to me? And I said, Well to be honest, you know I might have got it from you. But again we’re not, well is it an STD or what? So. Yeah that was a bit, that was a bit of a funny one. But again he wasn’t really, I think he was obviously a little bit concerned by it.

And how did your husband react when you told him, when you’d got this letter and

Well he was obviously very concerned, and we looked it up and it said about the HPV virus. And there was a certain amount of, I wouldn’t say accusation but, Well I haven’t got it. Have you, you know, where have you got that And I’m like, well I didn’t, you know, I haven’t been sleeping around or anything like that. I’ve obviously had previous sexual partners, you know. it’s a very common virus. You’ve probably got it, I’ve probably got it. 90% of the population’s probably got it.

But there was always that element of, Well where did you get that? How did you get that You know, and it was very transient that attitude, but nonetheless it was there. So again, you know, it brings all sorts of feelings to the fore that perhaps you hadn’t realised were there.

I’ve obviously had previous partners to my husband, who knows. But I didn’t feel for me that it was in any way held against me. But I can understand how, nowadays, it might do because obviously it’s related to sexually transmitted disease. I think, as I say, two or three years ago people weren’t so aware of it. But I’d say well, if people are that bothered, then they’re not really friends at the end of the day. Because it doesn’t really matter does it?

All I was told was that, obviously that I had to explain my situation, and they said to me it might just be the fact that I’d had a change of partner. I was also told that, obviously I went and I looked on the internet as well. And I remember reading that it could also be caused by having early sexual relationships or children early.

Now obviously I was pregnant at 16 and had my child at 17, so you know I started to think is it that?

Then I also found out that men whove had multiple partners can give it to you, and I knew he’d had a bit of a history. And that’s why I panicked and then I started to think, Oh well it must be his fault. It must be his fault. You know I’ve been clear for so many years, in a monogamous relationship; it’s got to be his fault.

I did, and there were obviously periods where I would sit here and absolutely, I was going to swear then sorry. Just sit here and cry and just think, Oh my God, you know, Have I got cancer? You know, and the blame, just the blame, thinking it was my ex-boyfriend who had given it to me. You know just the anger of that. And not knowing what, if I did have cancer, whether it could actually be treatable. You know and stuff
like that.

He [consultant] did shock me in a way because he says, Look you need to quit smoking he says, because it’s not going to help you at all Which I sort of knew it wasn’t, and then I felt well they blame everything on smoking. You’ve got a cough and it’s smoking. You’ve got this and it’s smoking sort of thing. But it did sort of give me the jolt I think that I needed.

And I thought, Oh I’m going to do anything I can to just end all this And I can remember, sort of well, he [partner] didn’t have much choice because I said, Right, if I’m stopping, you’re stopping And I can remember we quit on our own for a week. And by the end of that week, I think we were really on edge. And I thought, Well if I don’t get some sort of help, we’re going to end up smoking again And I think in a way I wanted to do it, just to prove that I could do it. Sort of go, Ha, well I’ve done it, so well you do your part sort of thing

So I rang NHS Direct up, and we went to, it’s just around the corner I think actually. We only went a couple of times, and she’d talk about why you want to quit smoking. Well we really, really wanted to do it. And the different ways, and we went on the patches. My partner he was only on the patches for three weeks, and I think I was on them for six.

And we only went to a couple of meetings. I mean you could phone any time you want or anything, but we didn’t need that much help. I just knew that we needed something. And you could go every week, and blow into the tube thing, and if it comes up as zero, they know you’ve not been smoking. So that sort of makes you want to do it as well. You want to get to that zero, sort of thing. So, that was brilliant and we’ve not, I was on the patches for six weeks, and we’ve quit for nine months now.

I think, certainly at the time, to be honest I didn’t really care. I don’t know if that’s too strong a term. But it was just like, this happened, you know. I want the treatment, how do I go about making sure I heal quickly.

It’s only been in the last sort of three years I guess, two or three years, that I started having a look on the internet and actually, you know, looking at different schools of thought as in, if you’re sexually active, does that increase your chances of having problems. Not eating green vegetables. You know, potentially could that contribute to your vulnerability of that.

So yeah it’s only really been in the last couple of years that maybe I’ve looked on the internet about it. But again it’s only really been where I have had a recall for unclear results or, you know, where I’ve had the second lot of treatment.

This is a vaccination that protects young ladies against, there’s two strains, two common strains of the high risk Human Papilloma Virus. The HPV 16 and 18. it’s available on the NHS to girls aged between thirteen and eighteen. And I think it comes as three vaccinations. You get one at time zero, one two months later, and one six months later. And it’s been shown in tests to offer good protection.

Now it’s important to remember that it doesn’t protect against all the Human Papilloma Viruses, so these girls should still go and have screening when they get to the age where they’re eligible for screening. But I think it’s a good idea. And I think it’s ensuring good protection and, over time, should lead to a reduction in the rate of cervical cancer by the order of, people are quoting between 50 and 80%.

The other good thing is that my fourteen year old, I mean my mum was looking on the internet and she, oh I think she heard it on the radio and then looked on the internet. And it was something about this injection for teenagers, to the parents, well the mothers had cervical cancer or whatever, or CIN1, 2, 3, whatever, and I looked into that. I spoke to my GP and my GP said yes, she can get it done privately for about four hundred and fifty quid.

And I thought, Well I haven’t got four hundred and fifty quid. But this has to be done. I made further enquiries to find out that the school are implementing it. But at this stage in her life, it doesn’t, it’s not her year group. And it won’t be next year, so it won’t be till the next, the following year. Now the only comfort I can get from that, knowing that my daughter is sensible and I know one hundred and fifty percent that she will not engage in any sexual activity before she’s probably 30! No, she wants to be a lawyer, she wants to be, she’s very headstrong, she’s very intelligent. So I’m hoping she’s, so long as, because there’s something about, that’s what apparently it is, they have to have the injection, and it has to be before they’ve had sex or something.

So I mean she knows all this, so hopefully it’ll be next year she will get the injections and she’ll get them for free. But I don’t think that’s good enough. I did ring the school and said to them, You do realise I’ve literally just had CIN3. And they said, It’s out of our hands. You can get it done privately but she will get done before she’s 16.