Can you get cervical cancer from sex?
The simple answer is yes: You can get cervical cancer from sex. But it's a long road getting there.
Almost all women with cervical cancer also have HPV, the human papilloma virus, which is a sexual transmitted infection. The early you become sexually active and the more sexual partners you have the more likely you are to get HPV, which puts you at risk for cervical cancer.
That said, there are many women (some of them my good friends) who have HPV but do not have cervical cancer, so there are other things like genes that determine whether someone who has HPV will develop cervical cancer.
Friends of mine who have tested positive for HPV just make sure they regularly visit their gynecologists to keep an eye out for abnormal cell growth on the cervix (something all of us should be doing anyway!)
