U.K. throws young, poor women under the bus.

I am beyond dubious about this new UK study that links “cervical cancer” to early sex.

Study leader, Dr Silvia Franceschi, said the findings were not restricted to adolescence and the risk of cervical cancer was also higher in women who had their first sexual intercourse at 20 rather than 25 years.
“In our study, poorer women had become sexually active on average four years earlier.
“So they may have also been infected with HPV earlier, giving the virus more time to produce the long sequence of events that are needed for cancer development.”

The thing they don’t mention in this article as they bash poor women for giving up the goods too soon is: some parts of U.K. don’t offer cervical cancer screenings until age 25. This sounds a little late considering that cervical cancer screenings in the U.S. were recommended for women 3 years after they first became sexually active — up until this year.
When the cervical cancer screening guidelines were released in the U.S. this past November, screenings were proposed to start at age 21. This may still leave a portion of young sexually active teens in the U.S. vulnerable. But had they gone as far as postponing screenings to age 25, there definitely would have been a riot. This is because even in the face of new guidelines, physicians still insist that the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is responsible for 70 percent or more cervical cancers, is high among sexually active teens.
It is true that experts in the U.K. have some good reasons for not reducing the cervical cancer screening age for the entire population. However, it appears that the U.K.’s Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening might need to consider lowering the age for cervical cancer screenings in populations that may be more vulnerable to cancer. I think this BBC reporter needs to re-frame this issue–instead of finger wagging at these young, poor girls, they should investigate further how policies on cervical cancer screenings in parts of the U.K. leave young, poor women out of the health care fold.