If you are sexually active, it is likely you will be affected and possibly infected with HPV sometime in your life, whether you are a man or a woman.  
 
The majority of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, which are one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, clear up on their own, sometimes without causing symptoms. However, if HPV infections are persistent and untreated, they can cause genital warts, as well as develop into six different types of cancer, including oropharyngeal (throat), penile, anal, vaginal, cervical, and vulvar. These cancers may take decades to develop. 
 
According to the World Health Organization, "There are more than 100 types of HPV, of which at least 14 are cancer-causing (also known as high-risk type)." 
  
Approximately 90 percent of women who will develop an HPV infection will not develop any other health problems. For the women who do develop complications, including cervical cancer, their entire lives are transmuted forever.  
  
‘It was something that could have been prevented. It just created a whole situation inside of me’ 
 
Jennifer Carew first heard her cervical cancer diagnosis when she was in the car, on her way to pick her son up. 
  
"I had to pull over," she said. "I don't know what exactly that moment did to me or made me realize, but I still have problems getting in the car and driving since that day." 
  
The stay-at-home mother of three had noticed that her workouts were becoming unbearable. She was experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding.  
  
"I would of course, ‘Dr.’ google it and I would read that it happens to lots of women. It was quite a lot [of bleeding]. It wasn't just a little spotting here or there,” Carew said. “That should have been my indication there was something more serious going on.” 
 
Carew would go back and forth between doctor’s visits and ultrasounds. It wasn't until one of Carew’s doctors asked her about her last Pap smear, which gave her pause to think. Carew had gone in for a Pap test three years prior in 2016 and was only a few months late getting her next annual test. 
 
“We went ahead and did that [Pap test] and it came back with abnormal cells right away,” Carew said. “It was kind of kind of a whirlwind, for lack of a better word.” 
 
In 2019, at 39, Carew was diagnosed with stage one cervical cancer due to HPV. 
 
Carew would undergo a hysterectomy in November 2020 and since her procedure, her tests for abnormal cells or cancerous growth have been negative. The diagnosis of cervical cancer and the surgery to remove her uterus left scars both inside and outside. 
 
“Just hearing the words that you have that [cancer] and it was something that could have been prevented, just created a whole situation inside of me,” she said. “It took me a long time to heal. I do have the scar so, it's a constant reminder that that happened.” 
 
One of the preventative measures that women can take against complications from HPV is to have regularly scheduled Pap tests. The test which involves collecting cells from a woman’s cervix allows for early detection of pre-cancerous cells, which can help a woman and her doctor assess the risk of cancer developing later on in life.  
 
Most women dread Pap smears due to fact that it can feel invasive and embarrassing. For Carew, a past history of trauma also made it harder to go in for a Pap test. 
 
“Coming from a background where I was sexually abused, it's a harder thing to go to,” she said. “I think it's very invasive without them [doctors] calling it invasive.” 
 
Carew was not offered the HPV vaccine as a teenager since it wasn’t available at that time. Before she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer, Carew did not sign the permission slips for her children to get their HPV vaccines.   
 
“I was uneducated on the actual vaccine,” she said. “I tried to do my research online which is really hard because you don't know what's credible and what's not.” 
 
Carew did speak to her family doctor about the vaccine which eased her fears. Today, she says if a vaccine had been offered to her as a teenager, she would have taken it. 
 
“I'm hoping my parents would have done that for me. I definitely would recommend the vaccine,” she said. 
 
Today Carew is healthy, but healing physically has only been part of her journey.  
 
“I feel physically better, but the mental aspect of it takes a lot more time.” 
 
While Carew survived her cervical cancer diagnosis, Stephanie Garrett’s mother was not so fortunate.  
 
‘My mom made everything fun. I just wish she was around for my kids.’ 
 
Lisa Gair was 32 years old when she died of cervical cancer. Her daughter, Stephanie was 10 years old when she lost her mom. 
 
Gair would have a Pap test done in 1994, which unknown to her at the time, had come back abnormal results. It would be four years before Gair would be diagnosed with cervical cancer. 
 
“In 1998, she passed out in her house, and she was losing a lot of blood. She just thought she had an extended period,” Garrett said.  “She ended up going to the hospital and found out then that she had stage four cancer.” 
 
When Garrett’s mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer, doctors did give her an option of getting a hysterectomy or starting on chemotherapy and radiation. Gair was not willing to forgo her ability to have children and continue to grow her family, so she opted for undergoing chemotherapy. 
 
“My mom was so young and she was really bright and vibrant and vivacious,” Garrett said. “There were times where I would go into her room, and she wouldn't know who I was. That was really hard. As a kid, you can't really understand it.” 
 
The doctors gave Stephanie’s mom months to live, but she would battle cervical cancer for two years. The loss of her mother profoundly changed how Garrett saw herself as she went through puberty. 
 
“It really made me aware of my body and trying to put out as much information as possible to other young women and girls about HPV and the possible side effects that can come from it,” Garrett said. 
 
Garrett immersed herself in sexual health.  
 
“I would do my school projects on HPV or different things like that because I wanted people to talk about it and to know about it and to be aware that this can affect young people as well as older people,” she said.  
 
She also became an advocate for herself, making sure she was getting regular Pap tests and screenings every year. 
 
“I get a lot of pushback from doctors who say, ‘you only need to get it done every three years. We don't need to do it this year,” Garrett said. 
 
Garrett was also one of the very first people who received the HPV vaccine when it became available in Canada.  
 
“My grandma and I went to the pharmacy, and we asked for Gardasil [the HPV Vaccine] and they didn't know what it was,” she said. “They had to special order it and ship it out and then I was able to get it and we had to pay cash for it.” 
 
Garrett said that discussing her mother’s battle with cervical cancer is not something she wants to do, but it is something she feels is compelled to do. 
 
“I’m going to be turning the same age as my mom when she died and what can I do to help other people not lose their parents?” she said, “I always say that I advocate for things, so I need to put my money where my mouth is.” 
 
Lisa Gair died on October 20th, 2000.  Her daughter, till today, misses her mother and thinks of all the things that could have been. 
 
“My mom made everything fun and that's something I really want for my daughter too,” Garrett said. “I just wish she was around for my kids.” 
 
Like Gair, Judy Sweet’s sister-in-law died of cervical cancer in the prime of her life. 
 
‘It was never something that I actually really thought people died from’ 
 
When Judy Sweet got a call from her husband’s sister, Charlene, in 2016, she was told that Charlene was diagnosed with cervical cancer. From the outset, Charlene truly believed things would turn out for the best. Six months later Charlene called Sweet again. The cancer had worsened. 
 
“The doctor said that the cancer was worse than they had thought and that they wanted her to start chemo,” Sweet said. “She went through chemo for about three months and then she called us and said it was all gone.” 
 
The celebrations were short-lived. Sweet and her family flew down to Ontario to see their ailing sister-in-law. Sweet drove Charlene to the hospital where the attending doctor told Charlene the news. The cancer had metastasized and there was nothing they could do. 
 
“She [Charlene] started screaming and bawling, yelling, ‘I have a baby, I have a little girl. I can't leave her here',” Sweet said. “It was probably the most traumatic moment because I looked at my own daughter's eyes and I wouldn't let go of me for weeks.” 
 
When Charlene went in for her Pap test, she had no idea there was anything wrong with her. Sweet underlined that even when she was in her 20’s, friends of hers would have abnormal Pap tests and get hysterectomies. 
 
“I was aware of it, but it was never something that I actually really thought people died from,” Sweet said. 
 
That changed when her sister-in-law passed away in 2017, leaving a four-year-old daughter. 
 
“It definitely made me more conscious of my own self, and making sure that I am there for my daughter,” she said. “I think that a lot of women don't talk about it. If it doesn't affect you, you just pretend it's not there.” 
 
Sweet said that she didn’t really start looking at the HPV vaccine until her children and her friends' children started coming of age for eligibility for the vaccine. 
 
“I didn't know what it was, but I heard the discussions about the vaccine, but not true information,” Sweet said.  
 
Sweet believes that her family tragedy highlighted the lack of information on HPV and its consequences. 
 
“If it took something that big to make me even know, what HPV stood for, or what it meant, or what the consequences were, I think I wouldn't have had that information otherwise,” she said. 
  
A 2015 article published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute stated that "HPV DNA was detected in 90.6 per cent of cervical cancers, 75 per cent of vaginal, and 63 per cent of penile " during a study that sought to determine the prevalence of HPV-associated cancers in the United States. 
 
The fifth annual HPV Prevention Week ran October 3rd - 9th. 
 

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