In 1950, for every 100,000 women, there were approximately 20 invasive cervical cancers, and 12 invasive cervical cancer deaths. Ob-gyns have actively promoted screening women for breast cancer, the most common cancer for women. Dr. Seltzer said that ACOG is currently involved in an ongoing campaign to inform women of the effects of cigarette smoking on their health and to help them quit. In 1950, lung cancer was the cause of only 3 percent of cancer deaths in US women. Today, it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women, causing over 68,000 deaths per year.
Young women are particularly vulnerable.
In March, US Surgeon General David Satcher reported that for the year 2000, nearly 30 percent of high school senior girls reported smoking within the past month. The increase in effective contraceptive methods since 1951 has had a profound impact on the quality of women's lives, said David A. Grimes, MD , of Chapel Hill, NC, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina and vice-president for biomedical affairs at Family Health International. Yet medical science often takes for granted some of the benefits and innovations of reproductive health technology. A side effect, however, is that it also interrupts ovulation, resulting in a temporary inability to conceive. Some new medical technologies are expensive and do not work.