He must be cheating on me!”

This was the response from my patient when her cervical screening report came back positive for high-risk HPV. A common misconception is that having a positive result automatically means someone has been unfaithful.

“I don’t even know what HPV is!” is something else I hear often around cervical screening results. Both reactions cause panic, upset, anger, fear, and worry. Why? Because of the lack of awareness around HPV, cervical screening and cervical cancer – and ultimately, the stigma!

But I’m hoping this article will help to change that, because this information really should be basic knowledge and it’s lifesaving! Based on data from 2017, Black African women are almost twice as likely to die from cervical cancer compared with White women, and we are also more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage. This number may even be an underestimate and the numbers could potentially be even higher.