Early sexual intercourse can cause cervical cancer, expert warns

Girls engaging in early sexual intercourse and having multiple sex partners are at risk of developing cervical cancer, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Adetola Ojo Olatunji has said. He stated this while delivering a lecture titled ‘Female Reproductive Structure and Function: Bane of Women in the Developing Countries’, during the 91st inaugural lecture of […]

Girls engaging in early sexual intercourse and having multiple sex partners are at risk of developing cervical cancer, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Adetola Ojo Olatunji has said.

He stated this while delivering a lecture titled ‘Female Reproductive Structure and Function: Bane of Women in the Developing Countries’, during the 91st inaugural lecture of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago – Iwoye.

He said cancer of the cervix is sexually transmitted and caused by a microorganism called Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). He added that HPV has been implicated in “about 99% of cases of cancer of the cervix.”

Prof. Olatunji said immunisation against the virus before the female genital tract is exposed to it could prevent the development of cervical cancer.

Citing WHO recommendation, he said boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 12 years should be vaccinated against the virus before they start having sexual contact which would expose them to the HPV infection and subsequent transmission to the female genital tract by the male.

Olatunji also advised women to go for early detection through “cervical screening” saying it is another way to prevent the disease.

According to him, cervical screening is quite cheap as screening costs only N500 at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu.

He lamented that despite being preventable, cases of cervical cancer in Nigeria are presented for treatment in advanced stages when little success could be achieved.

On reproductive failures, the university don identified blockage of the fallopian tubes and failure to ovulate as the major causes of infertility in women while in men, it could be caused by inadequate or absence of spermatozoa in semen.

He noted that unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted infections are the common predispositions to tubal blockage in women.