Healing process after rape never ends

2013-03-21

By Jacque Wilson, CNN

When the judge’s gavel fell, the future had been decided for the two teenagers convicted of rape in Steubenville, Ohio.

Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, will spend at least a year in a juvenile correctional facility, although authorities could decide to keep them in custody until they turn 21. Both must undergo treatment and will have to register as sex offenders.

For the 16-year-old victim, the next steps aren’t so clear.

She was raped last summer at a party; witnesses posted images of the assault on social media. The case has garnered national attention and sparked a conversation about rape in America.

“My family and I are hopeful that we can put this horrible ordeal behind us,” the victim’s mother said Monday. “We need and deserve to focus on our daughter’s future.”

Every two minutes, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Every survivor responds differently to rape, says Jennifer Marsh, vice president of victim services for RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization. Emotions run the gamut from fear to anger to guilt.

“It’s such a violent and personal crime,” Marsh said. “It’s not somebody just breaking into your house. It’s somebody assaulting the most private part of you. Having that be public, especially as a minor, can be traumatic.”

Victims of sexual assault are three times more likely to suffer from depression and six times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to RAINN. Some try to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs. Many have trouble with intimacy and forming trusting relationships.

One of the most common issues survivors face is blaming themselves for the assault, Marsh says. A lot of that has to do with our culture: Marsh says she sees rape cases like the one in Steubenville every day that aren’t taken seriously.

“A lot of times, it gets chalked up to, ‘Oh, kids will drink, and things will happen,’ ” she said. “But … sexual assault is sexual assault. And it doesn’t matter if the victim was drinking or using substances. The fact is that something was done to her that she didn’t want to be done. And I think that’s the conversation we really need to talk about.”

The victim in the Steubenville case has endured hostility from the attackers’ supporters. Although mainstream media have kept her name private, it’s obvious she’s well-known in the small Ohio community.

Defense attorneys questioned the victim’s character on the stand, asking witnesses about her alcohol consumption that night and what she told them the next morning regarding the assault. They also attempted to bring the victim’s past into the trial, but the judge did not allow the line of questioning.

The character attacks weren’t over after the verdict was read. Shortly after the trial concluded, two teenage girls were accused of making threats against the victim on Twitter, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla. One of the girls was charged Tuesday with one misdemeanor count of aggravated menacing for threatening the victim’s life.

This kind of personal persecution is a big fear for victims, says Becka Meier, a licensed professional counselor with the Women’s Center, a large nonprofit crisis center in Fort Worth, Texas. More than half of sexual assaults are not reported to the police; experts estimate that 97% of rapists don’t spend a day in jail.

“When we have a high-profile case that gets reported and we see the victim be re-victimized … it makes it all the more difficult for victims to come forward,” Meier said. “Survivors are faced with that difficult decision: Am I ready and willing to be in a courtroom and face this and talk through all the details again in such a public forum? It’s a lot to ask.”

Meier says a guilty verdict often offers survivors a sense of validation — that someone, at least, believes them. “Does it provide closure for a victim? I’ve never seen it provide closure,” she said. “It’s just a step in the healing process.”

That process never ends, Meier says. Photos of an attack that are posted online can make it even more difficult, acting as triggers to bring back painful memories each time they resurface.

“As hard as they try to delete or erase those images, five, 10, 15 years down the road, they’ll be notified that it’s popped up again and in some ways they feel like they’re reliving that assault,” Marsh agreed.

How a victim’s support network responds can have a big impact on the long-term recovery for that survivor.

“The first thing that loved ones should do is believe what the victim has said,” Marsh said. “Although we know it’s natural to try to figure out exactly how this happened, we encourage loved ones to avoid using ‘why’ questions, because victims often perceive that as blaming them for what happened.”

Family and friends should also recognize that each victim needs to recover at his or her own pace, she says. They should provide love and support without forcing them to do something that they’re not prepared to do yet.

Survivors can contact RAINN through their National Sexual Assault Hotline or go to online.rainn.org. Many local crisis centers offer individual/family counseling services and support groups.

Rape isn’t something survivors get over, Marsh says. But counseling and a solid support system will help them move on.

“Although they may never be able to forget that this happened, it doesn’t have to define who they are or the choices that they make.”

Prostate cancer ‘damages sex life’

2013-03-18

Around 160,000 men in the UK have been left with little or no sex life after treatment for prostate cancer, the Macmillan Cancer Support charity says.

It suggested rising cancer rates meant cases could more than double by 2030.

Yet many patients could be helped if more services were available on the NHS, it said.

Erectile dysfunction is a potential side-effect of surgery, radiotherapy and hormone therapy used to treat the condition.

More than 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK each year.

In some there may be permanent nerve damage, meaning they cannot maintain an erection.

In others the physical problem can be temporary while for some the treatment has led to a psychological barrier to sex.

Two in three prostate cancer patients say they are unable to get an erection.

Macmillan said men also needed to feel they could seek help when they were having problems with sex after their treatment.

‘Lonely journey’

Jim Andrews, 63, a prostate cancer survivor from London, said his first reaction to his diagnosis of the disease was that it would kill him.

“The thought of libido-killing drugs and sexual dysfunction still seemed minor in comparison to the alternative.

“By the time I realised I was likely to survive, my sex life had been destroyed. I was devastated.

“It was not a subject that any professional talked to me about. It’s been a lonely journey as no-one talks about it.”

Professor Jane Maher, chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Support, said the figures showed that this was a major problem facing patients after their treatment and not enough was being done.

“The sheer volume of men affected shows the need for careful discussions before treatment.

“Many can be helped through early intervention and better support for men living with or beyond prostate cancer,” she said.

The charity wants to see specialist nurses, better psychological support and physiotherapists more widely available to prostate cancer patients.

It says men should also be encouraged to seek help from their GP when they are having problems.

Dr Daria Bonanno, a consultant clinical psychologist funded by the charity, said: “For many men with prostate cancer there is a certain stigma attached to talking about erectile dysfunction.

“Many may feel a sense of loss of masculinity and sadness around the inability to sustain an erection and will be reluctant to seek support.

“This can often cause them to emotionally isolate themselves from their partners and could make the issues worse.”

When It Comes to Sex: Use It or Lose It

2013-03-11

By Stacy Lloyd

Although male sexuality is very different from female sexuality, studies say that it turns out for both sexes, that you need to “use it or lose it.”

The advice from researchers for older men who want to preserve their sexual function is this. Have sex, and have it often, Huffington Post reported.

In a study that followed nearly 1,000 older Finnish men for five years, researchers found those who regularly had sex at the start of the study were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by the study’s end, said Huffington Post.

“It’s what we in vascular surgery refer to as the ‘use it or lose it’ concept,” Dr. Hossein Sadeghi-Nejad, an associate professor of urology at New Jersey Medical School Hackensack University Medical Center told USNews.com.

“Sexual activity will promote maintenance of normal erectile function down the line.”

Women need to use it or lose it as well.

Women who have sex with themselves or a partner have better vaginal lubrication and elasticity of vaginal tissues than those who are abstaining, wrote FoxNews.com. More frequent sex also goes a long way in boosting a woman’s enjoyment of sex.

Some researchers believe that there’s a psychological component as well, said WebMD. People may stop wanting sex if they go a long time without it.

Sometimes this is true because people “turn off sex” to avoid feeling sexually frustrated. Having more frequent sex can actually maintain interest in sex.

Men and women may experience sexual changes as they age. WebMD advised that some changes may be the first sign of a medical problem.

So talk with a doctor about any concerning changes. He or she may be able to recommend treatments that will help.

Illness and side effects of medications can hinder sex, warned FoxNews.com. So be active, informed and communicate with your doctor about any medical conditions or medications that can hamper sexual intimacy.

People who have heart conditions can still enjoy full, satisfying sex lives, wrote WebMD. If arthritis is a problem, experiment with different positions. Women, use water-based vaginal lubricants to reduce vaginal dryness or irritation.

FoxNews.com advised staying physically healthy. Exercise and have a healthy diet. Don’t smoke, don’t abuse drugs or drink excessive amounts of alcohol.

Prescription medications that can enhance the sexual response are also available, said WebMD. Some people find herbs such as ginkgo biloba and ginseng enhance their sexual function.

But remember, both prescription drugs and herbal remedies carry the risk of side effects, so talk with a doctor.

What can people do now?

One researcher suggests the best predictor of later-in-life sexual activity is the amount you’re having at mid-life, wrote FoxNews.com.

So what better time to get started than right now?

Comprehensive Sexual Education—A Prevention Strategy

2013-03-04

By Amy S. D. Lee, MS, WHCRNP, Nurse Practitioner

I was interviewed the other day about drug-resistant gonorrhea—a topic I’ve written about here previously. The interviewer asked me what I thought could be done now that we are hearing that some strains of gonorrhea are developing resistance to most antibiotics.

I answered that I thought we had to focus on prevention—prevention that starts at an early age and continues throughout life.  Such an early education campaign starts with a program called Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) for adolescents.

What is Comprehensive Sexual Education?

It is sexual education that encourages children to practice abstinence until marriage, but also provides adolescents with the information and instruction they need to engage in responsible sexual behavior at every phase of their lives. This means how to protect themselves from becoming pregnant or getting a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

Young people must have accurate and sufficient information to make informed and responsible choices about their sexuality. Polls concerning CSE have shown that 72 percent of junior-high-school parents and 65 percent of high-school parents support CSE in the schools.

Although the American teen pregnancy rate has declined by one-third since the 1990s, it is still double that of Great Britain, 10 times Switzerland’s, and three times Canada’s.

Prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy begins early and continues throughout a person’s life. Talk to your healthcare provider for further guidance on a Comprehensive Sexual Education program in your home and in your community.

Sex is good for heart!

2013-02-20

Let’s talk about sex … and cancer

2013-02-07

By Jacque Wilson, CNN

Michelle was prepared for chemotherapy. She was prepared to lose her hair and deal with extreme nausea and be hospitalized for months at a time.

She was even prepared to die — knowing, with her aggressive form of leukemia, that death was a very real possibility.

But when death didn’t come, Michelle was officially labeled a cancer survivor. And she wasn’t at all prepared for what came next.

Treatment forced the mother of two through menopause, leaving her hormones reeling. Stress and self-doubt created problems with her husband of 24 years.

She also suffered from vaginal stenosis, a narrowing of the vaginal passage so severe that intercourse was impossible. As her primary care physician explained, she was basically a BAV: born again virgin.

“I was 49 when I was diagnosed, 50 when I received my (bone marrow) transplant,” said Michelle, who asked not to be identified by her full name due to the personal details she’s revealing. “I wasn’t ready to give up on a very important part of my well-being — that being my sexuality.”

There are 13.7 million cancer survivors living in the United States; the American Cancer Society estimates there will be 18 million by 2022. Survivors face many long-term effects of treatment, from secondary cancers to cardiovascular problems to cognitive defects. But the debilitating effects on a patient’s sexuality are often ignored, said Sharon Bober, director of the sexual health program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Bober’s program is one of a handful of sexuality-focused survivorship programs that have popped up at cancer centers around the country. Bober was inspired to start the program when she realized many of her patients — adult survivors of pediatric cancers — were struggling with sexual issues and had no idea where to go for help.

Radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and surgery all have the capacity to affect sexual function significantly, Bober said.

In one study, young breast cancer survivors reported skin sensitivity, vaginal dryness, genital pain, premature menopause, fertility issues and extreme fatigue. Their scores on a sexual health test were also lower than the general population’s, indicating problems with sexual desire, arousal, attaining orgasm and relationship satisfaction.
I wasn’t ready to give up on a very important part of my well-being.
Michelle, cancer survivor

These symptoms are common for cancer patients, Bober said. Men face many of the same issues in addition to erectile dysfunction.

The side effects don’t stop when treatment stops. Bober and her colleagues recently completed a study of 200 young adult cancer survivors; a significant number of them talked about long-term sexual problems years after their therapies were complete.

Imagine dealing with all the normal teenage development changes on top of dealing with cancer. Many pediatric cancer survivors feel uncomfortable even dating, Bober said.

Adult cancer survivors can also be apprehensive about the bedroom: Hormonal changes from chemotherapy and radiation often lower a patient’s sex drive. And many face self-confidence issues post-treatment.

Right next to the wigs and prosthetics in Dana-Farber’s patient store are vibrators and lubricants, which Bober said helps normalize the “personal products” she advocates using. Bober works with a team of doctors to provide whatever services her patients need, whether it’s couples therapy or education on vaginal health after early menopause.

Bober’s program helped Michelle understand what had happened to her sexuality — both physically and mentally. “She not only provided us with the emotional tools to overcome the changes we experienced, she also encouraged me to use ‘tools’ to help my body get its groove back,” Michelle said.

“I will often joke that I never expected vibrators to be prescribed. But they were absolutely necessary.”

Behind closed doors

Most of Bober’s patients are simply grateful to learn that there’s nothing wrong with them or their relationships. Although studies have shown sexuality plays an important role in happiness and quality of life, it’s not something doctors discuss often, Bober said.

“We live in a culture that does not support or facilitate honest and frank conversations about sex anyway,” she said. “Lots of people assume that because no one says anything about it, this is just the price that they have to pay.”

No one knows about America’s behind-closed-doors policy on sex better than Patty Brisben, co-author of “Sexy Ever After: Intimacy Post-Cancer,” and founder of Pure Romance, the world’s largest in-home party company specializing in bedroom accessories.

As an advocate for sexual health awareness, Brisben often does group presentations. Usually she conducts a 20-minute question-and-answer session at the end of her talk. Several years ago, a group of young cancer survivors held her captive with questions for more than two hours.
We live in a culture that does not support or facilitate honest and frank conversations about sex.
Sharon Bober, sexual health program director at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

“Women that are 19 and 20 years old, who never had that first sexual experience — doctors telling them (to buy) bedroom toys to stimulate so atrophy wouldn’t set in,” Brisben remembers. They asked, “Patty, what does that mean?”

That was the start of Pure Romance’s Sensuality, Sexuality, Survival program. Consultants from the company meet with cancer survivors to talk about combating dryness with lubricants and using other toys to enhance sexual pleasure.

“It has a lot to do with education,” Brisben said. “It’s so important to provide a safe platform where women can ask questions.”

Brisben teaches her employees not to sugarcoat anything. It’s a long journey, she said, and each cancer survivor needs to learn to stand up for herself; sexuality can’t be a dirty word.

“You truly have to be your own disciple,” she said. “Women will demand when it comes to our children or our significant others, but we don’t demand for our bodies.”

A return to intimacy

Michelle’s husband was a “trouper” through her cancer treatment, she said, but the couple had difficulty reconnecting in the bedroom. With her symptoms, her husband had trouble keeping an erection out of fear of hurting her.

She remembers thinking, “He must be so traumatized. … He only sees me now as a frail being and not as the woman I used to be.”

Cancer can test any relationship, said CNN’s sex expert Ian Kerner. It’s not uncommon for cancer patients to become depressed and question their life path, he said, which a partner can find hard to relate to.

“Ultimately, of course, when you’re in the midst of a battle of cancer, you really are focused on survival,” he said. “But as you resume your life, you want to resume all aspects of your life. And sexuality becomes a key factor.”

Kerner recommends couples start slow: Act like two people in love again, instead of patient and caregiver, by going out on date nights and cuddling in front of the fire.

Make your sexuality an ongoing conversation, he said. Your newfound intimacy might not necessarily be sex in the way it once was — you have to find a new version of sex that works for you.

“Recovering from cancer, you’re often not talking about weeks or months,” Kerner said. “You’re talking about years.”

Michelle has been in remission since March 2009. She’s adjusting to life as a survivor, volunteering at Dana-Farber to help others who are dealing with similar emotional scars.

“I’m striving to get back on track with normalcy,” she said, “in every facet of my life.”

Why husbands who share household chores miss out on sex

2013-02-01

In what feels like a blow to egalitarianism, new research finds that husbands and wives who assign housework along traditional gender lines have more sex than those who split the chores more equitably.

After reviewing data on how married couples in the U.S. tackle housework, as well as self-reports of how often they enjoyed intercourse, sociologists at the University of Washington (UW) say that couples who shared the burden of chores — cooking, cleaning and caring for the lawn — tend to have the least active sex lives.

The couples reported having sex about five times a the month on average before the survey began. But if the husband did no stereotypically female tasks (making meals, perhaps, or scrubbing floors), couples had sex 1.6 times more per month than couples in which husbands shared housework.

Couples where the husband contributed to household chores, but stuck to the more stereotypically male tasks (car maintenance, bill paying, yard work) had sex .7 times more than those where the wife did all the male work.

That means that couples where husbands do no traditionally female tasks have sex the most: 4.85 times a month. Conversely, couples where men do all the female work have sex the least: 3.3 times a month.

The couples where husbands pitch in but do only the male tasks, fall somewhere in between; they’re sliding between the sheets 4.7 times a month. Meanwhile, couples where wives do all the male tasks have sex just under four times a month.

Overall, couples put in a combined 34 hours a week on traditionally female tasks compared to 17 hours on manly chores. Husbands performed about a fifth of classic women’s work and more than half of men’s work.

The findings, drawn from 4,500 heterosexual married U.S. couples participating in the National Survey of Families and Households, add some context to other studies that have found that husbands get more sex when they do more housework — a kind of domestic quid pro quo.

But those conclusions didn’t quite ring true for Julie Brines, a co-author of the new study published in the American Sociological Review. She and her colleagues have done work suggesting that the division of housework doesn’t align with an “exchange model” where chores are traded for a share of income, for example, or sex.

Instead, Brines surmised that the relationship between sex and housework is actually far more complex. In actuality, it’s tied to stereotypical views of what qualifies as women’s — or men’s — work. And despite progress toward gender equality, “These are residues of sexual scripts that have been in place in our culture for a long time,” she says.

And what about the more important responsibility for couples with a family? This study did not take into account child care as a household chore — most commonly performed by women but increasingly embraced by men — because the data used did not contain useful information about who cares for the kids. No one, notes Brines, has yet looked at whether dads who do more child care get more sex.

It’s also worth pointing out that the national survey data was collected between 1992 and 1994, but Brines and her co-authors say that the relationship between sex and housework has changed little since then. Research reveals only a modest evolution in the division of household labor over the past 18 years — mainly in the realm of child care, with more dads stepping up.

Still, for the husbands who might be feeling smug about the results of her study, Brines has a bit of advice. “Don’t walk away from this research thinking, I should stay away from cooking or cleaning because I’ll benefit from it,” she cautions. “There may be costs associated with doing that.”

After all, a great sex life isn’t everything. Other research has found that neglecting to pitch in with dinner prep may create conflict in your marriage around the division of household labor. Men who shun cooking and cleaning can actually engender marital conflict which could also result in less sex. “There are trade-offs,” says Brines. And that’s putting it mildly.

TIME.com: Argue much? Conflict levels in marriage don’t change over time

This story was originally published on TIME.com.

5 Ways Stress Can Affect Your Sex Life

2013-01-16

Stress. I’m slightly on edge just writing the word. It brings up thoughts of all of the things I have yet to accomplish. Of all the resolutions I have (thought about) but not yet followed through with (and it hasn’t even been two weeks). After years of managing work, marriage, children and relatives, I can tell you that when I’m stressed, I’m not that pleasant to be around. And when it comes to sex, stress makes your sex life suffer. In fact, stress is one of those weird issues that can not only affect your sex life, but also be alleviated by having sex. So if you want to get rid of stress, why don’t you just go have sex? OK, that’s all.

You didn’t really think that I was going to leave it there, did you?

The effects of stress are insidious. It takes a toll on your physical, emotional and relationship health, probably more than you realize. Here are five ways stress can impact your sex life:

1. Stress contributes to a negative body image. Bad body image = bad sex.
The hormones produced in association with stress can impact our metabolism. If we feel sluggish or if we gain weight (unintentionally), it can make us feel badly about our physiques. If we don’t like our bodies, it is pretty difficult to find the desire to shed your clothes and jump into bed with your partner. Now, I am not suggesting that you should just get it over with, but it’s a vicious cycle. Lower self-image equals less sex and less sex creates relationship problems. Ideally, our relationship should enhance who we are, not make us feel more stressed. And one of the biggest stressors we can have is our relationship, if we don’t take the time to nurture it.

2. Stress takes a toll on our libido.
By now, we know that hormones affect our bodies in numerous ways from childhood to adolescence, pregnancy, menopause and beyond. Cortisol is one of the hormones produced by stress, and you might have heard of it if you’ve ever seen those late night diet pill commercials with the image of the pixelated woman gaining weight in her abdomen. Our bodies need this hormone, but in small doses for short bursts of time. If elevated levels of Cortisol are being produced for a prolonged period of time, they suppress our sex hormones. Lower quantity of sex hormones equals lower libido.

3. Stress makes us question our relationships and our partners.
As I mentioned earlier, when we are stressed, we are not that pleasant to be around — and vice versa. You don’t want a partner who flies off the handle and snaps at you because he or she is overwhelmed. And you don’t want to be the one who incites those feelings of frustration in someone that you love. Who wants to go to bed with an emotional monster? Relationships suffer when we are stressed, especially if we stop communicating. Or if our communication consists of rolling our eyes and grunting at a loved one.

4. Stress can lead to excessive drinking. Excessive drinking makes for bad sex.

It’s not a surprise that lots of people use alcohol to escape. I, like many women I know, have been known to long for happy hour — any happy hour. But this isn’t about a glass of wine, a bottle of beer or a drink with one of those smile-inducing hot pink umbrellas in them. This is about excessive, prolonged drinking. More than one or two drinks a day. (And we can even debate whether that is too much.) This is the type of drinking that you probably hide from friends. It may be the type of drinking that begins long before happy hour does and goes on far later. Or it may just be one drink beyond that early, feel-good buzz.

We know that men have difficulty getting an erection when they drink too much. But what about us? As it turns out, alcohol can dull sex, making it less pleasurable. Alcohol dehydrates us, making lubrication challenging. Without lubrication, sex is painful. Without lubrication and sufficient arousal, we can kiss the idea of orgasm (or pleasure in general) goodbye. After a number of pleasure-less or mildly painful sexual experiences, we are not going to want it. Would you?

5. Stress impacts our fertility and our menstrual cycle. When we are stressed, our hormones levels take a dive.

I mentioned stress as a factor in why our libidos suffer when we’re stressed. But who would have thought that fertility would be challenged, too? (Yes, I know what you’re thinking, if you’re not having sex, you’re probably not getting pregnant. You’re right, but there’s more to this — and besides, not all women are heterosexual, and they try to get pregnant, too.)

Stress can impact our pituitary gland, which controls the thyroid, adrenal glands and ovaries. If our ovaries aren’t functioning properly, your menstrual cycle is adversely affected. Our periods may become irregular or we may stop menstruating. (This is called amenorrhea and if stress-related, not a permanent condition.)

If you are trying to get pregnant, you need to decrease your stress. Which (as I know) can be difficult, because there are few things more stressful than trying to become pregnant and not being able to do so.

So it’s time to make some changes.
Exercise, relax, take a bath, drink one glass of wine (not four), masturbate (yes, I said masturbate), make out with your partner and delegate some responsibilities to others. It will make 2013 a lot less stressful… and hopefully, a lot more enjoyable.

So what will you do to alleviate stress in 2013?

Scientists work on new test for ovarian, endometrial cancers

2013-01-11

Could the Pap smear, which is already commonly used to detect cervical cancer, also be used to find endometrial and ovarian cancers? A small study suggests that may be possible in the future.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have found that cervical fluid collected during a routine Pap smear can be used to detect both types of cancers by using a genome sequencing test called the “PapGene.”

Researchers administered the test on a small group of samplings, and found the procedure accurately detected all 24 endometrial cancers, or cancer of the lining of the uterus. However, they were only able to find nine of 22, or 41%. of ovarian cancers.

According to the American Cancer Society, only 20% of ovarian cancers are found early. Survival chances increase dramatically when cancers are caught early, before they have spread.

The Pap test is designed to collect cervical cells that are examined for cancer. It is the gold standard for cervical cancer screening. Yet, there is no good screening method available for ovarian or endometrial cancers.

Because the pilot study was small, investigators say this genetic test is not ready for general practice. They emphasize larger studies still need to be conducted and the test may even have to be refined, particularly to improve finding ovarian cancers. Scientists involved in the initial research are already recruiting patients for the next trial phase.

But doctors are still excited, especially since the test would be easy and convenient since the Pap test is already available. When cells are taken in a Pap test, there is excess fluid that accumulates on the smear. Those are the fluids the test would examine for the other cancers.

And investigators say the procedure would eliminate a lot of “false positive” results that previous tests for these cancers have caused.

“The lack of false positives is a real advantage, because they often lead to anxiety and worry in the patient,” says Dr. Luis Diaz, the lead investigator of the study and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins. “And the follow-up tests are expensive and can be invasive. We are hoping this test will take away those worries.”

Results of the experiments are published in the January 9 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Post by: Val Wadas-Willingham – CNN Medical Producer
Filed under: Cancer • On the Horizon • Women’s Health