Women should visit the gynecologist regularly and have check-ups, such as echo and cytology, to corroborate that everything is in order and to be able to detect diseases early, especially uterine cervix cancer.
Cytology is one of the best-known ways to detect lesions caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) and to be able to apply treatment as soon as possible.
With all the studies and the evolution of medicine, nowadays, there is another way to diagnose HPV: Analyzing menstrual blood, a much simpler, less painful, and less invasive way than cytology.
In this article, we will explain what you should know about this new form of HPV detection.
What is HPV?
To understand more about this new HPV test, you need to know what HPV is. So, human papillomavirus is a viral infection that most often causes lesions or warts on the skin and genitals.
HPV has many types. Although not all of them cause warts, the most aggressive ones can cause uterine cervix cancer. Other types of cancer that can be caused by the virus are anal, penile, vaginal, or throat cancer.
The virus is transmitted sexually or by skin-to-skin contact. Currently, some vaccines help prevent the formation of genital warts caused by HPV, thus reducing the risk of cancer.
Ways of detect HPV
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Pap smear
The main form of detection of the virus is through the test, commonly known as the Pap smear and the Human Papillomavirus test. Through these tests, any possibility of developing uterine cervix cancer due to HPV can be determined.
The pap smear is nothing more than cytology, in which a sample of the cervix is taken. That test is later taken to a laboratory to determine if there are alterations in the cells of the uterus, which means that the virus is active and depending on the lesions, that there is cancer.
This test is recommended for women over 25 years of age, especially those who are sexually active.
On the other hand, a complement to the Pap smear is the human papillomavirus test since once it is determined that the person does indeed have HPV, the virus test can determine which type of HPV is active.
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Menstrual blood tests
Recent research has determined that to detect the human papillomavirus, it can no longer be done only by cytology but can be done by a simple analysis of menstrual blood.
It was also shown that this test has a reliability of 94.2%. It is also believed that this method is much more accurate than detection by Pap smear.
However, it must be taken into account that to achieve this reliability, the blood sample must be taken on the second day of menstruation since the bleeding is abundant.
In conclusion, this discovery makes the sampling process much simpler and less invasive for the woman than cytology.
Now, whether you have the virus or not, we know that in the days when we have menstruation, comfort is invaluable, so we recommend the menstrual panties offered by The Eco Woman, they are an economical and current ecological option.