The main cause for developing cervical cancer is represented by the human papilloma virus. Human papilloma virus is a sexual transmitted virus, that exists in over 100 different types. Not all the human papilloma viruses are responsible for producing cervical cancer, the mild types usually produce warts or even go undetected and after a period they disappear.

About 40 types of human papilloma viruses are sexually transmitted and produce serious diseases of the genital area vulva, cervix, vagina, anus, penis. The human papilloma virus types considered high risk responsible for those serious diseases and for the cervical cancer are the HPV TYPE 16, 18, 31, 33, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68 and 69. The warts in case of contacting human papilloma virus through sexual intercourse with a sexual partner infected with this virus may appear after weeks or even months after the intercourse, or you may be infected with the virus without having any symptom. The human papilloma viruses with low risk of developing cervical cancer that cause warts are the HPV TYPE 6 and 11. In majority of the cases the human papilloma virus doesn’t have any symptoms.

Other causes of the cervical cancer are smoking, having an early debut of sexual activity, having multiple sexual partners in a life time, many children, many abortions, using contraceptive pills for a period longer than 5 years. That is why the health care practitioner recommend women to use condom as a protection for both unwanted pregnancy and sexual transmitted viruses and diseases, including HPV. Woman who are sexually active and have multiple partners are more exposed to contacting the human papilloma virus.

All human papilloma viruses, presenting a high or low risk , may cause abnormal cell changes , but the low risk types are responsible for causing cervical cancer by developing abnormal chances of the cervix cells.

The most efficient screening method against cervical cancer in the history is Pap smear test. It can detect 95% of all cervical cancers and abnormalities of the cervix cells.

Can detect cervical cancers and abnormal changes such as:

atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS)

typical glandular cells of undetermined significance (AGUS)

low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSI)

high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL)

hyperkeratosis

I think that a question comes in everybody’s mind: is it possible to have cervical cancer with normal pap smear test? Is possible to intervene an error? The medical experts think that Pap smear test has a certain irreducible error rate. In test laboratories may occur sometimes error like classify a normal smear as suspicious, or fail to detect abnormal cells. Other errors may occur during screening, collecting the cells sample: collecting sample cells incorrectly , collecting an inadequate quantity of sample cells, not preparing the microscope slide properly.

Because of those errors that sometimes occur is possible to have cervical cancer with normal Pap smear test or is possible not to have cervical cancer with false negative Pap smear test result

To avoid these kind of cases, health care practitioners recommend women to make Pap smear tests regular, at least once a year.