This insightful program includes an interview with Dr. Marc Steben, a physician who counsels women who have received a positive HPV result, which puts them at risk for developing cervical cancer and Melissa Mitchell who has tested HPV positive, at risk for cervical cancer, as she shares her journey toward reducing her risk.

One of the main reasons women are diagnosed with cervical cancer is that they are not going for their PAP test or they are not going on a regular basis.

 “I had no symptoms. It was really a regular screening. I was really going in there confident. I did not expect to have any type of follow up for that exam except that everything was fine. So, there was no, there was no indications. I was in a long-term relationship. I had had one sexual partner. So it was quite a shock.”

~Melissa Mitchell, diagnosed high grade lesions (HPV positive result), at risk for cervical cancer

Education is key to removing the stigma surrounding an HPV diagnosis. It is possible for a woman to have had only one partner in her lifetime and be infected. The goal in screening either by PAP test or HPV test, is to prevent cervical cancer, a disease that often has no symptoms until it has progressed and is far more difficult to treat.

“A negative HPV test is the most powerful test to ascertain a women having a minimal or no risk of developing cervical cancer in the next few years.”

 ~ Marc Steben , M.D. Medical Director, Clinique A rue McGill

Marc Steben, M.D. 

Medical Director, Clinique A rue McGill

Melissa Mitchell

diagnosed as HPV positive, at risk for cervical cancer