If there are confidentiality issues, a client may not want her lesbian identity included in the chart. Each provider may need to develop a charting technique as a discreet reminder of a client's sexual orientation. The panel stated that, at least in theory, cervical cancer is one of the cancers that can be completely eradicated. Lesbians, too, are at risk since they often do not have routine PAP smears. If all of the women in this country who are not receiving annual exams and PAP smears could be reached in order to receive gynecological care, cervical cancer could be virtually wiped out.
Cervical cancer is second to breast cancer as the most common malignancy.
The NIH committee of medical and scientific experts found that half of the women diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S. have never had a PAP test. When properly performed and read, the test can detect abnormal cells before they advance to cancer and can lead to early treatment that can preserve both the woman's life and her fertility. The committee also reached conclusions that virtually all cervical cancers are related to infection, at some point in a woman's life, by the human papilloma virus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease. The NIH report said that cervical cancer is unique in that it is the first major solid tumor to have been shown to be virally induced in essentially every case. Six types of HPV are associated with cervical cancer.