Vital Views

Dr. Janice Enriquez 0:30
Hi, good afternoon. Welcome to vital views. I am Dr Janice Enriquez. I am one of the faculty here at the School of Nursing. I help teach with midwifery students and pre licensure nursing students. Today, we have Dr Marguerite Brathwaite with us, and our conversation today will be about cervical cancer screening before we begin, I just want to share a statement we are committed to fostering a supportive and welcoming environment for all. We recognize that cervical cancer can affect a diverse range of individuals, while Cervical cancer is most commonly associated with individuals assigned female at birth. It is important to acknowledge that gender variant individuals with a cervix can be at risk. We aim to use language that reflects the diversity of those affected by cervical cancer, and we strive to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity or expression feels represented and respected. If at any point you feel the language used is not inclusive, or if you have concerns about specific terms or topics, we encourage and welcome. Welcome you to speak with us. Our goal is to provide information and resources that are inclusive all of all genders and experiences. This conversation doesn't substitute actual health or medical care. So if any of these things seem relevant to your own health, we encourage you to seek medical services, as I mentioned. Dr Brathwaite is here today with us. Dr Brathwaite is a board certified OB GYN in Las Vegas who has been practicing for over 20 years providing care for women across all stages of life. She earned her Bachelor's of Science in chemistry at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and her metal medical degree at the Loma Linda University of School of Medicine in California. Dr Brathwaite offers an array of services, including well woman exams, pregnancy care, sexual health care, hormone therapy and birth control. She specializes in adolescent gynecology, high risk obstetrics and menopause care. Dr Brathwaite also excels in minimally invasive robotic surgery for hysterectomy, fibroid removal and other women's health needs. Her goal is to make each patient feel like a family member. Welcome. Dr Brathwaite, thank you so much for being here today.

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 2:41
Thank you so much. Dennis, thank you for having me. January

Dr. Janice Enriquez 2:45
is Cervical Health Awareness Month, and your work in women's health is amazing. I wanted to get a little deeper into the topic with you when we talk about cervical cancer screening, can you share with us a little bit more information about what cervical cancer screening entails?

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 3:00
Cervical cancer screening is basically having a Pap smear, actually getting cells from the cervix that you can send to the pathologist that they can analyze. So sometimes, some people go to the urgent care for an issue and they get a speculum exam and they think they're having a pap smear. Most urgent cares don't do a pap smear. So a pap smear is very specific testing of the cervix to rule out abnormal cervical cells and HPV.

Dr. Janice Enriquez 3:29
And how often would you say cervical cancer screening should occur, or pap smears, Pap tests.

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 3:37
So you're you should start doing your Pap smears when you're 21 we used to do them when they were younger, when they're sexually active, but now the American College of OB GYN recommends pastimes at 21 and then they recommend having a pass me every three years after that, up until you're 29 years old, you can just get a pap smear if the pastime is abnormal and they see any abnormal pre cancer cells, they may ask for the HPV testing. So a pap smear may not always contain HPV testing. So you can get co testing. And we co test everybody over 29 so people 30 years and older would get co testing, the pasmere with the HPV. What

Dr. Janice Enriquez 4:20
are some of the symptoms that really indicate that this might actually be cervical cancer? What are some signs that we should report right away?

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 4:28
So with cervical cancer, you can have bleeding, especially like bleeding after sexual intercourse. You can see irregular bleeding that's not consistent with your menstrual cycle. And some people, if it progressed and you're having a cervical mass or tenderness in your pelvis. Those could be signs and symptoms that that you may actually have cervical cancer or vaginal discharge with a strong odor,

Dr. Janice Enriquez 4:48
right? That doesn't go away with treatment. That's something that I tell my patients too, is if there's, if there's a strong odor that doesn't go away despite our treatment, it's definitely worth reporting to. Your provider,

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 5:00
yeah, so that somebody can take a look down there. When we

Dr. Janice Enriquez 5:03
think about preventive health care, we know that cervical cancer screening helps us identify if there's any changes to our cervical cells. Are there any lifestyle activities that we can observe or partake in to help us minimize our risks for cervical cancer?

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 5:21
This is considered like a sexually transmitted disease, the main way to prevent yourself from getting HPV that can cause cervical cancer would be like if you're sexually active, using condoms. Because a lot of men don't even know that there are carriers of HPV. They don't know that they have it, especially for the high risk types that cause a cervical cancer, they may know that they have genital warts, and that's a different type of HPV that can cause genital warts, and they may know that. But for high risk HPV that causes cervical cancer, men may not know that they're, you know, a carrier of it, and pass it on from one woman to another woman. So the best way would be to, you know, have protected sexual intercourse, and also when you're younger, if you get a vaccine to prevent to resist you from HPV, that would also be a helpful way to prevent cervical cancer. By HPV vaccine, you can start as young as nine years old or 11 years old before they used to have a restriction that you can only take it up to 26 years old, but now, like if you're 27 to 40 and five years old, you can still try to get the HPV vaccine.

Dr. Janice Enriquez 6:28
And are you limited by gender? As far as who can get the vaccine?

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 6:33
No males can get the vaccine as well.

Dr. Janice Enriquez 6:38
Thank you for sharing that. So I know you specialize in adolescent gynecology. How can parents or guardians talk to their teens about the importance of prevention and Cervical Health without overwhelming them?

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 6:51
I guess you should just have an overall conversation about sexually transmitted diseases. You know, because, like when I tell the girls in my office, like even for chlamydia and gonorrhea, 80% of time that could be asymptomatic and that can cause scarner For fallopian tubes and cause infertility later on in life. So you also want to be considerate of things that you might not know is going on, like cervical cancer or changing of the cells to become abnormal, like dysplasia, you may not have symptoms of that so and then that can progress if you're not going to see the doctor, not having regular past marriage, to from mild pre cancer cells to moderate pre cancer cells to high grade pre cancer cells, and then to cancer. I mean, there's a lot of time that it could take to go from one end of the continuum to the next. But if you're not getting tested, you won't know, definitely, you know regular testing and also keeping a strong immune system, because I've had people who've had HPV, and they resolved it with like increasing the immune system, taking glutathione or an acetyl cysteine can help boost your immune system and help protect you from the changes of HPV. Thank

Dr. Janice Enriquez 8:08
you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time for us today. I do have one last question for you, what actions or habits would you encourage listeners to do this month to help prioritize their Cervical Health,

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 8:22
make an appointment with your local gynecologist or Dr Brathwaite and innovative women's care. Get your Pap smear and your STD testing done no smoking. Keep a strong immune system. Vitamin D also helps with your immune system and having safe, protected sex.

Dr. Janice Enriquez 8:41
Awesome. Anything else you'd like to share with our audience today? Stay

Dr. Marguerite Brathwaite 8:45
healthy. Keep a health, healthy version of yourself by just keeping up with your regular exams, whether that's a gynecological exam or you know, with your primary care doctor, feel free to come visit us at innovative women's care.

Dr. Janice Enriquez 8:58
Thank you so much. You're Awesome. Dr Brathwaite, you're welcome. You