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Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones： 那么你的子宫颈是什么? 这是干什么用的？? 为什么癌症会发生在那里? 你能做些什么来预防呢? 这是你的宫颈镜.
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Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones： Every woman just can't wait to get her pap smear, right? 不，那不对. So what is a pap smear for and what does your cervix do? What should you know to prevent cervical cancer? 这是博士. Kirtly Parker Jones from the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at University of Utah health care and today we are going to have a little reproductive biology session that might make it a little more reasonable to go ahead and get your pap smear. Cervical health today on 范围.
A woman's cervix is attached to the uterus. The uterus is shaped like an old fashion, incandescent light bulb. We won't be seeing too many of those in the future, or sort of an upside-down pear shape. 宫颈是较低的部分, the part that attaches into the lamp in the light bulb, or the part with the stem of the pear. Its part of the uterus, not separate, and it's about the size of a really great big grape. It's a miraculous structure with several functions.
One, it functions to anchor the uterus and the pelvis by its firm attachments to the pelvis. 两个, it keeps germs and sperms in the vagina from getting up into the uterus, except during the fertile period every month when the cervix's mucus changes during ovulation to serve as a safe pathway for sperm into the uterus and the fallopian tubes to find the egg. 三个, it's very firm and tight in the non-pregnant woman and in early pregnancy, 像一块石头, 它已经关闭了. But at the end of pregnancy and during labor, it gets very soft and opens up very big to let the baby out. And then in days to weeks it closes and gets really hard again. 神奇吧?
The outside of the cervix is covered with skin cells, like the vagina. 还有子宫颈管的内部, that goes into the uterus is covered with mucus producing cells, 一个月有好几天, make the mucus safe haven for sperm. These mucus producing cells are very delicate and where they meet the vagina, 他们暴露在细菌中, 病毒, 化学物质, sperms and other stuff that makes them change into skin cells as a protective mechanism. 在这个过程中, any 化学物质 or 病毒 that can badly affect DNA can make the change that can proceed to cancer. About 1 in 125 American women will get cervical cancer.
现在, smoking and a sexually transmitted virus, 叫做HPV病毒, are the biggest risks for cervical cancer. 子宫颈癌是可以预防的. 子宫颈癌 is detectable before it becomes cancer. 这就是子宫颈抹片检查的目的. It's cheap and nobody ever died from a pap smear. Maybe you thought you would, but you wouldn't. If the pre-cancer stage is detected with the pap smear, it can be treated before its cancer and save your cervix and uterus. 子宫颈癌, if it's detected in the early stages of cancer by a pap smear, can be treated and cured surgically.
子宫颈癌 is one of those diseases that is differentially expressed among the poor, 在移民, and among people who don't have access to health care. 所以如果每个女人都接受了筛查, 推荐, the chances of getting cervical cancer would go almost to zero.
所以，子宫颈很神奇. 照顾好它. 不要吸烟. Use condoms if you have new partners. Use the HPV vaccine before you're sexually active. Get your daughters the vaccine, and get your pap smears. 21岁首次生育. After your first pap is normal, you can go 每三年一次. Some women might want a pap and a test for the HPV virus when they are over 30. 两者结合起来, 如果是负的, you can go to every five years before you're tested again. 这是好消息. 不是每年都做子宫颈抹片检查, 每三年一次, 或者共同检验, every five years if you're negative. If you've never had an abnormal pap smear, you can stop getting them at 65. If you don't have a cervix anymore, if you had a hysterectomy that wasn't for cervical cancer, 你不再需要爸爸了.
So, your cervix is amazing, it keeps sperms out until you need them in. It keeps babies in until you need them out. 照顾好它. And thanks for joining us on 范围.
播音员: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is 范围, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.