January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and research shows that late-stage cervical cancer appears to be on the rise.
Doctor Robert Debernardo with Cleveland Clinic said that could be due in part to the pandemic and the change in guidelines for pap smears.
Women now only need to get them done every three years, and in some cases every five years.
Early stages of cervical cancer don’t usually involve symptoms and can be hard to detect - making routine pap smears extremely important.
Cervical cancer is preventable and is often the result of the virus HPV - a sexually transmitted infection.
"We developed a vaccine years ago," Dr. Debernardo said. "There are several on the market that are extremely effective at preventing cancer.
In Australia where uptakes of vaccines are high, they're seeing a decrease in the amount of cervix cancer in that country."
According to the CDC, roughly 13,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed every year in the U.S., in addition to 4,000 deaths.
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