Before becoming president of family planning, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer during routine screening

When I was at the faculty of medicine, I was at my student health center for an annual review and Pap test. It was a routine visit and I had no reason to expect anything extraordinary.

A week later, my doctor told me that my results were abnormal, and I would need to be retested – a sentence in front of more than 3 million women in the United States each year.

Three weeks later, the diagnosis was made: "You have what could be early cervical cancer."

I was shocked. I had just been studying the reproductive system as part of my clbades and I was surprised to learn the statistics: every day, 35 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, according to CDC data. Hundreds of others are diagnosed with precursors who could drive there.

After a test confirming that I had a high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), a serious precursor to cervical cancer, I underwent a procedure called loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP). ). PLEPs are short procedures that use a small loop of electrical wire to eliminate abnormal cells. Fortunately, for years, my Pap tests were clear.

Then, after another routine annual check-up, I was told that I had to come for a new test. The same fear that invaded me years ago has come back.

This time, I was diagnosed with an early stage cervical cancer, or carcinoma in situ.

I was 27 years old. I had just got engaged. We both wanted children. This is something we have often talked about and I was terrified that my diagnosis might suggest that having children was now impossible. The procedure I had to undergo, cervical conization, was to remove part of my cervix, which, I knew, increased the risk of miscarriage and premature birth.

As a doctor and public health officer, I have never told this story. Nearly ten years later, I am happy to announce that I do not suffer from cancer. Today, I am the mother of a 17 month old son – a happy and healthy boy who is the joy of my life.

I was fortunate to have access to systematic screening, safe and effective surgery, and close supervision. My life could be very different today if I did not have access to routine and timely screeningsand immediate interventions.

Cervical cancer can be caused by several types of human papillomavirus (HPV)). Since cervical cancer usually progresses slowly, early diagnosis is often crucial for detecting disease when there are curative treatment options.

It's hard for me to talk about this experience, but I took over as president of Planned Parenthood and thought about the many ways I can explain how critical reproductive health care is for lead a happy and fulfilling life. Since January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, I take this opportunity to talk about my own experience.

I am alive today because of this routine test that detected my cancer in its infancy.

Every year, Pap tests and HPV testing help thousands of women die from cervical cancer. The HPV vaccine is also an essential prevention tool because it protects against the types of HPV that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers. HPV vaccination did not exist at the time I was diagnosed, but today it probably prevents thousands of patients from experiencing what I experienced.

But the fact remains: More than 4,000 women die each year from cervical cancer, including a disproportionate number of women of color. Cervical cancer is diagnosed at a higher rate in black and Hispanic women than in white women, and it is more likely that they will be diagnosed at a later stage, making treatment more difficult. A recent study in the journal Cancer, which focused only on women who have never had a hysterectomy, found that black women would die of cervical cancer twice as fast as white women.

It is no coincidence that women of color also have a high rate of insurance or underinsurance. Without access to affordable and quality reproductive health services, which constitute standard medical care, women will die because they are forced to forgo the necessary prevention and treatment for cervical cancer.

Today, as President of Planned Parenthood, I am grateful that I can do something to address this injustice. I run an organization that provides access to cervical cancer screening, HPV vaccination and the full range of reproductive health services for all our patients. We offer Pap tests in each of our more than 600 health centers and, in 2017 alone, we performed more than 270,000 Pap tests and performed tens of thousands of HPV vaccinations.

Planned Parenthood also serves 41% of all Title X patients. It is the only federally funded reproductive health and family planning program. income. The Trump-Pence administration recently proposed a rule that would restrict access to Title Xwhich means that millions of women could lose access to essential health services that help prevent or detect cervical cancer.

It is thanks to early diagnosis and treatment that I am alive and have a family of my own. No one should die from cervical cancer because they do not have access to affordable and quality reproductive health care. As President of Planned Parenthood, I am committed to using my platform to raise awareness about the importance of reproductive health care.

More of us have these stories than you think. I encourage you to share yours.

Related: