{"id":893707,"date":"2026-03-23T03:28:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/5-common-myths-about-cervical-cancer-i-learned-the-hard-way\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:28:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:28:58","slug":"5-common-myths-about-cervical-cancer-i-learned-the-hard-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/5-common-myths-about-cervical-cancer-i-learned-the-hard-way\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Common Myths About Cervical Cancer I Learned the Hard Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I wasn\u2019t worried\u2014until my doctor asked if I was sitting down.<\/p>\n

Earlier that week, I\u2019d gone in to follow up on an abnormal Pap smear<\/a>. I\u2019d put screening off for a few years during the pandemic. She took a few small biopsies, but it didn\u2019t feel urgent. In the past, any abnormal results I had soon cleared up. I\u2019d even had a LEEP, a common procedure to remove precancerous cells from the cervix, in my 20s and moved on with my life.<\/p>\n

When she called with the biopsy results, I expected, at worst, a small inconvenience. Another procedure. A light chiding for my delay.<\/p>\n

Instead, she told me I had cancer.<\/p>\n

Cervical cancer is often described as preventable. It\u2019s usually caused by HPV, a sexually transmitted virus nearly 85%<\/a> of people will contract in their lifetime, but which rarely progresses to cancer with regular screening and vaccination.<\/p>\n

After my diagnosis, those facts felt like an indictment. I replayed the skipped appointments. The voice that said, You\u2019ll reschedule next month.<\/em> I thought: If this kills me, it will be because I didn\u2019t take it seriously enough.<\/p>\n

Spoiler: I did not die. Today, I am gratefully two years cancer-free. But once women in my life knew my story, they began sharing their own with me\u2014and I got a window into how common it is to fall behind on Paps, panic over abnormal results, and keep questions about cervical health to yourself.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve come to understand is that none of us are reckless. We\u2019re just trying to navigate a risk the medical establishment doesn\u2019t explain well, that\u2019s strangely hard to talk about and often feels abstract, until it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So I sat down with my gynecologic oncologist, Amy McNally, MD<\/a>, at Minnesota Oncology, to separate myth from reality and unpack what she wishes every person with a cervix understood.<\/p>\n

Myth 1: Cervical cancer is rare.<\/h2>\n

Before my diagnosis, I could name exactly one person I knew who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer: an aunt in the 1990s. My mom, a nurse for decades, had never cared for a single cervical cancer patient. I genuinely believed it was something that just didn\u2019t happen anymore.<\/p>\n

And in the US, it is<\/em> relatively uncommon\u2014about 14,000 new cases a year, a fraction compared to the more than 300,000 cases of breast cancer. But worldwide, cervical cancer remains the fourth most common cancer in women, with deaths concentrated in countries where screening is harder to access.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cCervical cancer is rare in the US because the Pap works,\u201d Dr. McNally tells SELF. \u201cAmong gynecologic cancers<\/a>, the cervix is the one place we have a truly effective screening tool\u2014but you have to do it to get those outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in a generation that doesn\u2019t see it or hear about it as much, she says, people forget about it. And when we forget about it, we stop taking seriously the very thing we\u2019ve been successfully preventing.<\/p>\n

Myth 2: Abnormal Paps are no big deal.<\/h2>\n

Nearly every woman I know has gotten an abnormal Pap result that didn\u2019t lead to anything serious. A Pap is a snapshot of cervical cells, and all kinds of minor things can make that snapshot look off. Often the issue clears on its own, or after handling something simple like a yeast infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many women have had an abnormal Pap and nothing comes of it,” Dr. McNally tells SELF. \u201cSo they tell friends, \u2018It was fine,\u2019 and assume that\u2019s always the case.\u201d But, she emphasizes: \u201cAn abnormal Pap needs appropriate follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

One big reason is HPV. It\u2019s extremely common<\/a>, and most strains don\u2019t cause cancer. But a smaller subset called high-risk HPV (hrHPV) can drive cell changes that lead to cervical cancer over time.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why follow-up is often guided by HPV testing. If atypical cells show up and hrHPV is present, your doctor will usually recommend a colposcopy\u2014a close-up exam of the cervix to look for trouble spots. If atypical cells appear but hrHPV is negative, the plan is often repeat testing and closer monitoring.<\/p>\n

Either way, the word \u201cabnormal\u201d shouldn\u2019t scare us, but it does<\/em> mean we need to pay attention.<\/p>\n

Myth 3: HPV usually clears.<\/h2>\n

We hear it often: \u201cHPV usually clears on its own.\u201d But \u201cusually\u201d is doing a lot of work in that sentence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cYounger people\u2014under 30\u2014are more likely to clear high-risk HPV,\u201d Dr. McNally explained. \u201cAs we get older, we\u2019re less likely to clear it. The blanket statement \u2018it usually clears\u2019 isn\u2019t accurate. It\u2019s age-dependent and influenced by other risk factors like smoking and immune status.\u201d<\/p>\n

What really raises concern, she says, isn\u2019t a single positive test. It\u2019s persistent high-risk HPV that doesn\u2019t clear on its own within a year or two. That\u2019s why, if you\u2019re HPV-positive, even with a normal Pap, you need closer surveillance than the standard three-to-five-year interval.<\/p>\n

HPV is extraordinarily common; most sexually active adults will encounter it at some point. But because it\u2019s an STI<\/a>, it carries stigma. That stigma paired with the assumption that it will resolve on its own creates exactly the kind of delay that turns something preventable into something serious.<\/p>\n

Myth 4: If I don\u2019t have symptoms, I\u2019m fine.<\/h2>\n

No part of me worried I had cancer. I had zero symptoms. I felt the healthiest I ever had. And that, says Dr. McNally, is why preventative screening is so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cCervical precancer, let alone cancer, is usually asymptomatic,\u201d she told me. \u201cIf we’re waiting for symptoms<\/a> to get care, it\u2019s usually cancer by the time they show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most things that send us to the gynecologist announce themselves: pain, discharge, itchiness. Cervical cancer doesn\u2019t. That\u2019s the whole reason the Pap exists: to find what your body isn\u2019t telling you.<\/p>\n

Myth 5: The HPV vaccine is only for teenage girls.<\/h2>\n

The HPV vaccine<\/a> is one of the most effective cancer-prevention tools we have. A recent American Cancer Society<\/a> report found cervical cancer rates among women ages 20\u201331 fell 27% in the post-vaccination era, with the steepest drops in states where vaccination rates are highest.<\/p>\n

I remember friends getting the Gardasil vaccine in high school, but I didn\u2019t. I was already sexually active and was told I\u2019d missed my chance. Years later, I heard another cutoff: under 26. Ironically, I got my first dose at 32, on the same visit that confirmed I already had cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I wasn\u2019t anti-vaccine, and I wasn\u2019t making a statement. The guidance<\/a> simply shifted over time, and like a lot of women my age, I stopped asking once I\u2019d heard \u201ctoo late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. McNally put it plainly: \u201cNot only do we have great screening that prevents cervical cancer, we have a vaccine that came out years ago\u2014but it requires families to know about it and choose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you should know:<\/p>\n