Cervical cancer: Difference between revisions

'''Cervical cancer''' is caused by the [[human papillomavirus]], also known as HPV. Circumcision advocates often use HPV as a scare tactic, asserting that circumcision prevents, or "reduces" its transmission. Like all other diseases that circumcision is supposed to prevent, however, the best "evidence" that is offered is statistical analyses of carefully selected data. There is, as of yet no established mechanism whereby circumcision prevents, or reduces the transmission of HPV.

Cervical cancer is cancer of the cervix. The cervix is the lower part of the uterus, or womb, and is situated at the top of the vagina. Cervical cancer develops when abnormal cells in the lining of the cervix begin to multiply out of control and form pre-cancerous lesions. If undetected, these lesions can develop into tumours and spread into the surrounding tissue.

Cervical cancer is caused by infection with certain types of the [[human papillomavirus]], or HPV. While other factors such as the oral contraceptive pill, smoking, a woman's immune system and the presence of other infections also seem to play a part, a woman has to have been infected with certain 'high-risk' HPV types before cervical cancer can develop.<ref name="ho1998">{{REFjournal

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Castellsagué ''et al.'', 2002, found that "HPV was present in 19.6% of uncircumcised men and 5.5% of circumcised men. Men who had had 6 or more sexual partners also had an increased risk of infection. After adjustment for confounding variables, circumcision remained associated with less frequent HPV infection."<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> The same Castellsagué found in 2014, that circumcision was practically useless for HPV prevention.<ref>{{REFweb

[[Aaron Tobian|Tobian]], 2009, claimed that "male circumcision significantly reduced the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among men in three clinical trials."<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> The study, led by scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University in Uganda, relied on data from the same randomized control trials in Africa that already showed that circumcision cuts in half the risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can cause AIDS. [... and so has [http://www.circumstitions.com/HIV-SA.html the same faults] as them.]

There are already two HPV vaccines available. HPV vaccine is administered to girls before their sexual debut.

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