Gardasil, a vaccine against four types of the human papillomarivus (HPV), may reduce the risk of cancers of the vagina and vulva in addition to reducing the risk of cervical cancer.

The HPV virus can lead to precancerous or cancerous changes to the cervix, vagina, penis and anus. Researchers combined information from three clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of Gardasil on the risk of precancerous changes to the vulva and vagina.

The study found that among women who had not been infected with the HPV virus, Gardasil was 100 percent effective against precancerous changes to the vulva or vagina. Among those that had been infected with a certain strain of the HPV virus, Gardasil was 71 percent effective. Gardasil was 49 percent effective against all precancerous changes to the vulva or vagina.

The researchers concluded "With time, such vaccination could result in reduced rates of HPV-related vulval and vaginal cancers".

They are called DES daughters, and they are the women who mothers took the anti-miscarriage hormone drug DES during pregnancy. It is estimated that millions of pregnant women were given this drug between the 1940s and 1960s, and it's now been determined that the daughters born to these women have not only an increased risk of a rare vaginal cancer but also nearly double the chance of developing breast cancer.

This sad finding has been addressed before but now more than ever, DES daughters are urged to stick to a strict breast cancer screening schedule.

A news brief published in the February 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping boldly reminds all women to comply with government guidelines that call for mammograms for all women every one to two years starting at age 40 and every year after the age of 50. But it's a different story for women exposed in utero to DES.

"If you were exposed to DES, be sure to let your doctor know and have a mammogram ever year, even in your 40s," says Julie Palmer, lead researcher of the DES study.

Cervical cancer was once the most common cancer in women. But between 1955 and 1992, the number of cervical cancer deaths dropped by 74 percent -- thanks to increased use of the Pap test, a screening tool that can find changes in the cervix before cancer develops and can also detect cancer in its most curable stage. The Pap test is still widely used. And the cervical cancer death rate continues to drop four percent every year.

In 2006, about 9,700 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. About 3,700 women will die from the disease. Non-invasive cervical cancer is believed to be four times more common than the invasive form of the disease. Nearly all of these cases can be cured.

Cervical cancer typically occurs in women between the ages of 35 and 55 and rarely in women under the age of 20. It affects mostly Hispanic women, and African-American women develop the disease 50 percent more often than non-Hispanic white women. Women most as risk for cervical cancer are smokers, those with HIV or chlamydia infections, those with diets low in fruit and vegetable consumption, those who between 1940 and 1971 took the hormonal drug DES, and those who have taken oral contraceptives for extended periods of time. Women who have had multiple pregnancies, have a family history of the disease, and have a low socio-economic status are also at risk. Those most at risk, however, are women with human papilloma virus.

Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most common risk factor for cervical cancer, and some experts believe a woman must have HPV to contract cervical cancer. There are 100 different types of HPV, 13 of which are likely to cause cervical cancer through sexual contact. There are usually no symptoms of HPV, but possible signs of cervical cancer can include vaginal bleeding, unusual discharge, pelvic pain, and pain during sexual intercourse.

There are two ways to stop cervical cancer. First, women can protect themselves against HPV. Protection comes in the form of delaying sexual activity, limiting the amount of sexual partners and their partners, using condoms (thought to be 70 percent effective) and receiving the cervical cancer vaccine, recommended for use in females ages 11-26. The vaccine is most effective for women who have never been sexually active. Second, women can receive regular Pap tests in order to catch pre-cancers. Pap tests are recommended for women three years after their first sexual encounter and before the age of 21 -- and then every year after that.

An abnormal Pap test typically prompts a colposcopy -- a technique that uses a scope to examine the cervix. Diagnosis usually stems from a combination of other scoping methods, pelvic exams, imaging tests, and biopsies used to confirm the presence of cancer and to stage the disease. Stages range from 0-4.

For non-invasive cervical cancer, surgery -- ranging from removal of the cancerous tissue to hysterectomy -- may be the only treatment necessary. For invasive forms of the cancer, surgery is often followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Women interested in preserving their fertility should discuss options with their physicians.

The state of cervical cancer has come a long way over the years. And this year, two critical developments emerged. In June 2006, the FDA approved the first drug for late-stage cervical cancer. The drug, Hycamtin, is recommended for use in combination with chemotherapy. Also is June, the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, was released. Both developments are monumental -- and both will undoubtedly help decrease the already-dropping cervical cancer death rate.

For more information about cervical cancer, visit the following sites:

American Cancer Society
Mayo Clinic
Medline Plus
National Women's Health Information Center

This is a really big issue for some women. Especially young women who have received chemotherapy for treatment of cancer. The chemotherapy, the menopause brought on by the chemotherapy or other procedures such as oophorectomy and lupron shots to stop the ovaries' production of estrogen can wreck havoc on a women's sex life.

I found an article that talks about some of these issues and tips to help out. My own special tip would be a product called Just Like Me.

The article states that vaginal dryness and related painful intercourse (called dyspareunia) is one of the most common reported problems by women who are receiving or have completed cancer treatments. The article talks about different vaginal lubricants, moisturizers, estrogen products and soy products.

Just be careful if you are a breast cancer survivor. Some products such as soy and vaginal estrogen products have some controversy whether or not it's safe for estrogen positive cancers.

Being a young breast cancer survivor I know these problems first hand. It's not easy to deal with what you knew as your body and now things so drastically change at such a young age. There are things out there to try. Always ask your doctor before you try anything to make sure its safe.

Almost all conversation and approval efforts regarding Gardasil, the new vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, has been about girls and women. Medical experts and researchers are recommending that boys and men receive the cervical cancer vaccine too. They suggest this is a necessary step if there is to be an effective elimination of cervical cancer originating from infection of human papillomavirus (HPV).

At this time, the recent approval for the vaccine only speaks to the use for girls aged 9 to 26. But both women and men become infected with HPV, and it does not make sense that only one half of the population at risk for infection are being vaccinated.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) almost 80 percent of U.S. women by age 50 will be exposed to one of the 100 strains of HPV, known to cause genital warts and cervical, vulva and vaginal cancer in women.

"Vaccine prevention strategies work when they are applied in a gender-neutral fashion," stated Bradley Monk, author of the commentary addressing this issue published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. "For example, polio, measles, tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, rubella, mumps, and Haemophilus influenza B have been nearly eliminated in the United States as a result of this strategy."

In November 2004, my husband I and decided to try to have a third child. But instead of getting pregnant, I got breast cancer. And with the aggressive treatment I would receive -- surgery, dose-dense chemotherapy, radiation, and Herceptin therapy -- becoming pregnant was not an option. Birth control became my only option -- an option that has many limits for premenopausal women surviving breast cancer.

Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine expected to receive FDA approval any day now, and proven to provide women 100 percent protection against cervical cancer, might also offer the same level of protection against vulvar and vaginal cancers. Finnish researchers of the study that made the discovery note that while vulvar and vaginal cancers are less common than cervical cancer, more younger women are being diagnosed with vulvar and vaginal cancers.

The cervical cancer vaccines set to be approved this year guard against human papillomavirus, HPV -- a virus known to lead to cervical cancer. HPV is responsible for all cases of cervical cancers and is present in 80 percent of the 6,000 cases of vaginal and vulvar cancers diagnosed in the United States each year.

In a separate study, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have announced that the cervical cancer vaccine might lead to less cancer of the head and neck. "If we vaccinate everybody in the U.S., we could probably impact head and neck cancer in approximately 20 years," said Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.