. This feeling, I soon realised, is common – plenty of women are receiving these letters and naturally are scared, and eight in 10 people get HPV at some point in their lives. On this week's episode of Smut Drop, Metro.co.uk's sex podcast, we spoke to Dr Aziza Sesay to help take the fear out of diagnosis – because knowledge around these subjects is empowering. How to take the fear out of a HPV diagnosis Talk about it Dr Aziza Sesay believes the first big issue causing anxiety and worry is that 'we don't talk enough about this'. She recommends you 'discuss things more freely', which could mean talking to friends, a healthcare expert, or family. 'We need to get rid of the shame and taboo associated with it,' she adds. The more normalised HPV is, the less scary it becomes. 'Don't suffer in silence, don't go it alone,' she warns. She says: 'It all has to do with knowledge and empowering people with knowledge early on. 'I work with the Eve Appeal and they've recently launched this programme called Know Your Body, implemented in schools for boys and girls. 'They're talking about HPV, and some people think 'this is too young', but I believe the earlier we feed in this information to children, the more they'll be normalised.' Arm yourself with facts Aziza says it's important to remember first-off, 'it can in the long term potentially lead to cancer, […] but it doesn't always do that'. '90% of us will clear it in two to three years – our bodies are really good at clearing it.' But it's also possible to not be able to clear it – people aren't often aware of that, and even then, it doesn't mean the outcome is cancer. 'Not everyone with HP){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
When I got a letter through saying I had HPV and abnormal cells in my cervix, I was terrified.
The cold clinical language made everything seem serious and it doesn’t take long after seeing the words ‘abnormal cells’ to jump to ‘cancer’ – not to mention, the shame of having a virus that’s passed through sexual contact (even when using a condom).
This feeling, I soon realised, is common – plenty of women are receiving these letters and naturally are scared, and eight in 10 people get HPV at some point in their lives.
On this week’s episode of Smut Drop, Metro.co.uk’s sex podcast, we spoke to Dr Aziza Sesay to help take the fear out of diagnosis – because knowledge around these subjects is empowering.