Today I remember Lillian whom I saw three years ago and whose desire to satisfy the husband sexually pushed her to seek care in the sexology clinic. Unfortunately her adventure did not end well.
“I am being impeached from my bedroom doctor,” came the voice jokingly, “you better intervene before my marriage breaks!”
I was not sure what Lillian was talking. Phone consultations are never the best, especially if you have never met the person as was in this case. We agreed to meet at the clinic the following day.
“Well, it is Valentine period and everybody is showing love but for me I am unable; as they say when it rains it pours and for me it is happening literally!” Lillian had a way with the spoken word.
I was not sure I understood everything she was talking about in her parables so I requested that she explains.
“It is my periods, they just won’t subside. My husband is very upset and thinks I am pulling one of those strings on him,” she explained.
She had been bleeding continuously for three weeks. This was contrary to her usual menstrual flow which would only go for four days. She had no tummy pains but in the preceding days, she had noted that the blood was getting dirty and starting to smell.
“But all that is not a problem, I am seriously worried about this Valentine season and the fact that my husband wouldn’t move close to me, he hates blood. I need advice on my sex life, it has been almost a month with no sex, can you imagine?” She said.
I examined Lillian and found the bleeding to arise from her cervix. There was a friable growth in the cervix which was bleeding easily. The growth seemed to be extending to the pelvis. I feared this could be a serious condition, possibly a cancer.
Pap smear is an important test that every woman should undertake routinely. It detects changes in the cervix that could develop into cancer. Treating those changes in good time averts cancer of the cervix.
“It is not that I do not know about the test doctor,” she explained, “It is just that I have never had the courage to do it, many women I talk to just hate it; it is uncomfortable.”
Lillian was booked for examination in theatre under anesthesia to confirm the extent of the growth and also take a biopsy for testing in the laboratory.
Results of the tests were ready a week later. Lillian came with her husband to the clinic to receive them.
“I came to see the doctor because I wanted to make your Valentine happy but this is turning out to be unbearable for me,” she told her husband, tears rolling down her cheeks. I had just explained to them that the test confirmed that she was having cancer of the cervix.
“But doctor do you mean just bleeding alone is the symptom for the cancer?” Lillian’s husband asked, “my wife has always been fine, what could have caused the cancer?”
Unfortunately cancer of the cervix never has symptoms until it reaches advanced stages when abnormal vaginal bleeding, sometimes following sex, may occur.
Some women may also experience blood stained smelly discharge. Pain happens late in the disease. The only way to detect the cancer early is to go through routine screening using pap smear or other tests.
Because most women do not go for screening, cancer of the cervix is among the commonest cancers among women in Kenya. It is estimated that over half a million cases of the cancer are newly diagnosed globally each year leading to about 280,000 deaths of women.
In Kenya, about 2,500 cases are diagnosed each year leading to about 1,700 deaths. The cancer occurs in women who have had sex at least once. Any woman who has been sexually active therefore needs to be screened for it.
For young girls who are yet to be exposed to sex, there is now a vaccine. The vaccine can be administered from the age of nine years. Parents should help their children get the vaccine. Older women can also have the vaccine after the screening tests show that they have no signs of the disease.
“When you say that it happens in women who have had sex, does it mean that it is sexually transmitted?” Lillian asked curiously.
The connection between the cancer and sex is found in a virus, the Human Papilloma virus (HPV). The virus is common and is sexually transmitted. There may be no signs of infection by the virus until the cancer happens. In a few cases, there may be growths in the private part called warts.
Lillian underwent hysterectomy, the removal of the uterus, with the hope of cutting out all the cancer cells from the body. She then underwent radiotherapy. Unfortunately ten months later, her kidneys failed. The cancer cells had invaded the urinary system and interfered with flow of urine leading to destruction of the kidneys.
Realizing that the cancer had advanced to levels beyond repair, Lillian was referred to the hospice for terminal care. She unfortunately passed on a few months later.
I hope ladies will go for routine pap smear. I also hope that they will take the cervical cancer vaccine for prevention. It is painful to see women dying from causes that can be prevented. Stop cervical cancer and enjoy your sexuality in 2022.
