Overview
- Hospitals report more precancerous lesions and early-stage diagnoses in younger women, challenging the cancer’s traditional later-life profile.
- Experts stress that vaccination before sexual exposure provides the strongest protection, yet uptake in India remains low due to myths and stigma.
- Regular Pap smears and HPV testing can detect cellular changes years before cancer develops, but screening participation continues to lag.
- Doctors caution that early disease is often silent, urging attention to red flags such as abnormal bleeding, unusual discharge, pelvic pain, or pain during sex.
- Pediatricians and gynecologists call for prevention to begin in early adolescence through vaccination, clear education, and consistent follow-up into adulthood.