Condoms do not cause cervical cancer

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An obstetrician gynecologist has dispelled rumours that condoms, especially female condoms are among several causative agents resulting in cervical cancer amongst women.
Dr Michael McCarthy who is a regular contributor on e.tv Ghana's flagship programme Awake, Monday, explained that condoms were some of the safest modern contraceptives and their use amongst women helps in the prevention of contracting cervical cancer.
He was speaking on a broader topic; abortion, when the issue of female condoms and cervical cancer cropped up.
In Ghana, it is believed that 6.57 million women over the age of 15 are currently at risk of developing cervical cancer. Each year, at least 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer while about 2,000 die from  it in the country.
When asked by host, Rashida Nasamu about the myth surrounding female condoms as causing cervical cancer, Dr McCarthy had this to say: “It’s a complete lie. You are actually protecting yourself from the main cause of cervical cancer if you use a condom. You are actually preventing yourself from getting human papillomavirus (HPV) which can then lead on to cervical cancer. This is a protective mechanism so why should anybody mischievously say that that is causing cervical cancer.”
He therefore encouraged women to take pride in using female condoms to protect themselves from contracting sexually transmitted diseases and in an attempt to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
He said, “The female condom is a fantastic piece of equipment. It gives the woman control and so on. I will encourage more women to try it. It can be fun.”
Away from cervical cancer, Dr McCarthy threw more light on abortion and its prevalence in Ghana. He distinguished between a safe abortion, unsafe abortion and an induced abortion and advised women to seek professional practitioners when they want to carry out any abortion procedure in order to reduce complications.
He explained that in most situations, a woman would opt for an abortion not necessarily because of the pregnancy she is carrying but because the pregnancy in itself was unplanned.
“We realize that there is a huge unmet need for contraceptives in Ghana. It is actually a worldwide problem. And we realize that up to 80 per cent of those who get pregnant because they have not had appropriate contraception go on to require an induced abortion. So if we can work on the area of unmet contraceptive needs, we will actually significantly be able to reduce the need for an unwanted pregnancy and therefore the need for abortion.”
Dr McCarthy reiterated the need for people to be made more aware of the modern contraceptives in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies leading to unsafe abortions since they had the likelihood of damaging one’s reproductive system.
He said, “Using any form of modern contraceptive is so many more times safer than having even a safe abortion. So it is better and less complicated for you to be on a modern contraceptive than to wait for an unintended pregnancy and go ahead for a termination of any kind.”
“I think there should be more focus on getting people to have access to modern contraceptives so that they are able to prevent the unwanted pregnancies, space their births and to ensure that they get pregnant to a large degree when they are ready.”

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