it is a staggering statistic every two
hours one woman dies from cervical
cancer and more than half of new
cervical cancer cases occur in women who
have never or rarely been tested joining
us now to talk about how women can
protect themselves against cervical
cancer is sports reporter and cervical
cancer survivor Erin Andrews and ob/gyn
doctor Jessica Shepard ladies thank you
for joining us this morning - appreciate
it good morning to you both
miss Andrews if we could start with you
I mean obviously you have gone public
with your story would you share with our
viewers you know what happened with you
and and how you discovered that you had
cervical cancer yeah I mean I think
that's what is so relatable about my
story and how I discovered it was the
fact that every year before I go back to
football
I always it's like when I was younger
before I go back to school get you go to
the doctor you go to the dentist you
make sure everything's in order so I
went to my OBGYN and just for a standard
checkup and it was week three of the NFL
season and it was a Saturday I got a
text from my doctor and she said we got
to talk and I talked to her that
afternoon she said I had tested positive
for cervical cancer and that we needed
to go ahead and you know take care of
this and and I remember talking to my
family and my friends and my team and
they were all just like no way this
didn't happen to you because you're so
healthy you take care of yourself you
work out all the time and in fact we
were dealing with a very big issue and a
very common issue as well absolutely and
did you have to go through you know long
treatment or it had you caught it early
enough because we hear that all the time
about cervical cancer if you can catch
it early you know obviously your
recovery can be very quick yeah
absolutely and that's why we are both
here talking today because it is
preventable it is treatable and we did I
was very very lucky that we caught it so
early and I ended up having two
surgeries to deal with it and because we
did catch it so early I didn't have to
thankfully go through any other
treatment than that but again you know
I'm such a busy person you're such a
busy person everybody out there is so
busy with with
kids and carpools and soccer and dance
and their jobs as well and that's why
we're trying to say and no matter how
busy you are make the time
put the call in make the appointment and
go because if you go and get checked
that's when you can deal with it and I'd
like to bring dr. Jessica Shepherd into
the conversation because I hear you miss
Andrews actually because you do get busy
and I think that sometimes it's the moms
who are the last ones that kind of take
care of themselves
what can you dr. what's the best way
then to prevent cervical cancer you know
the best way to prevent cervical cancer
is screening and so when you go to your
doctor you want to make sure that that's
an annual relationship you're going to
your doctor every year and so at the age
of twenty-one is when you want to start
doing your PAP screening and between the
ages of 30 to 65 is making sure that
when you go to the doctor is making sure
that you get your PAP and HPV together
because the HPV test really is going to
able to detect most of cervical cancers
and so like Aaron was saying earlier you
know cervical cancer really is
preventable
and it's treatable but it really you
know make sure that you go to the doctor
every year establish that relationship
and ask the questions don't be afraid to
ask the questions when you go to that
appointment you know sometimes it can be
a little confusing because I remember
you know year after year you know they
tell you hey you need to get a pap smear
as an example
HPV was never really part of the
conversation because now we have learned
now with the vaccine why it's so
important are you do you recommend them
then specifically asking for a pap smear
and an HPV test each each year that you
go or can you absolutely you break it up
absolutely no I think that adding the
HPV is really going to make it much more
specific and looking for the causes of
cervical cancer we know that the virus
is the leading cause of cervical cancer
so if you can add that to your testing
that's gonna make sure that you were
making sure that you're covering all
cervical cancers and making sure that
you're getting screened appropriately as
well and is it covered by insurance you
know it actually is covered by the
Affordable Health Care Act and so there
should be no co-payments or shall be no
deductibles and for people who don't
have insurance and making sure that they
have resources that are available to
them to have
make sure that they get the pop
screening and the most important part is
knowing what your resources are so going
to the website change the STATCOM to
make sure that you have all the
information you need to know about pap
smears and HPV testing and for our young
viewers also I mean it's not it's it's
not a painful test to have it is maybe
you know a slightly uncomfortable for a
second or two but this is not something
that's painful that you would experience
so just know that in the meantime this
andrew is you look fantastic
obviously you you you have recovered
very early out here on the west coast so
thank you any advice that you have for
for our female viewers watching yeah I
mean exactly what we just said is take
time out of your day look nobody wants
to go to the doctor I I love my doctors
but I don't want to see them I'd rather
see them out at dinner or something like
that you know make your appointment go
get checked go see them and then you
know if you get some sort of diagnosis
that you don't want like we got go to as
many doctors as you can after that get
as many opinions as you want you know
it's not as I've learned thankfully it's
not a death sentence it's not something
that you you know it's gonna ruin your
life if you go obviously like we said
it's preventable and it's treatable but
we were lucky we got a lot of opinions
and that helped guide us moving forward
Erin Andrews and dr. Jessica Shepherd
thank you this morning for joining us -
appreciate it and we also encourage
women who are watching to wear teal the
entire month if you can you know when
you add it to your wardrobe each week
this month has awareness to just remind
you know your co-workers and family
members women female you know female
family members that it is cervical
cancer awareness month