What Increases Your Risk

The most common cause of cervical cancer is a persistent infection with a high-risk type of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV infection of the cervix is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). A past HPV infection in you or your partner can cause abnormal cervical cell changes years later because the virus may remain in the body for life. HPV infection usually does not cause symptoms and often goes away without causing any problems, so you or your partner may not be aware of a current or past HPV infection.

Other risk factors that may increase your risk for cervical cancer include:

• High-risk sexual behaviors, such as having more than one sex partner, or having a sex partner who has more than one partner. Safer sex can reduce your risk.
• Having an impaired immune system. For example, women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seem to:⁶
  • Have higher rates of HPV infection.
  • Be more likely to develop cervical cell changes from HPV.
  • Be more likely to quickly develop cervical cancer from those cell changes.
• Using birth control pills for more than 5 years. This may be related to infection with HPV.⁵
• Exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) before birth (prenatal exposure), though this is rare.
• Smoking or a history of smoking, and possibly exposure to secondhand smoke.

Pregnant women have the same risk of developing cervical cancer as nonpregnant women.