In the last year, I’ve had to deal with cervical cancer twice. The first time was when a friend of mine, only 6 months younger than me, found out she had it. Thanks to modern medicine and catching it early, she’s still here to raise her little girl. The second time was today when I accompanied my mom to the calling hours for a friend of hers, only 6 months older than my mom, who died from cervical cancer over the weekend. Unfortunately, hers wasn’t caught so early and by the end it had spread to other parts of her body.

The American Cancer Society’s list of risk factors for cervical cancer include infections of the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, HIV and chlamydia as well as smoking, hormonal contraception, multiple pregnancies, exposure to the hormonal drug drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) and a family history of cervical cancer. Luckily, the 5-year survival rate for women with stage IA cervical cancer is around 96% while for stage IB it’s around 85%. Unfortunately, by the time it gets to Stage II, that number drops to around 55% and it keeps dropping as the stages increase.

There is hope, though. Cervical cancer is one the most preventable types of cancer thanks to regular pap smears, which can suggest the presence of premalignant changes in the cervix before cancer has even developed.

So ladies, let’s do our part to make sure we are alive to see our children, nieces, nephews and grandchild grow up. We all know how much it sucks to plop our feet in those stirrups but that 10 minutes of torture each year could save your life.