Men's sexual behaviour affects their wives' risk of cervical cancer
Progress in human reproduction research 1996(39): 7-8
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 1564-0655 PMID: 12292201 Document Number: 299302
Various types of human papillomavirus have been implicated as causes of cervical cancer. However, researchers have suggested that the transmission of the virus can be reduced through condom use. At least 23% of all cervical cancer in Thailand may be attributed to the lack of condom use among the customers of prostitutes. The husbands of 225 women with cervical cancer and 791 controls in Bangkok and Chiang Mai were interviewed in a study to determine whether husbands' lack of condom use with prostitutes affects their wives' risk of developing cervical cancer. The cases studied were reported between 1979 and 1988 and were limited to women born after 1930 in Bangkok and after 1925 in Chiang Mai who had lived for at least 1 year in the areas served by the three hospitals which participated in the research. Among women whose husbands first had sex with a prostitute in their teens or 20s and who did not use condoms at that time, the risk of cervical cancer is twice that of women whose husbands had never visited a prostitute. All women reported having been married only once and having had sex only with their husbands. The period between date of marriage and diagnosis of cervical cancer ranged from 6 to 45 years, with a mean and median of 24 years.