Consumer Health: Preventing cervical cancer

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, which makes this a good time to learn more about the connection between HPV and cervical cancer.

When women are exposed to genital HPV, their immune systems usually prevent the virus from doing serious harm. But sometimes the virus survives for years. Eventually, the virus can lead to the conversion of normal cells on the surface of the cervix into cancerous cells.

Gardasil 9 is an HPV vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration for males and females 9 to 45. This vaccine can prevent most cases of cervical cancer if a girl or woman is vaccinated before being exposed to the virus. In addition, this vaccine can prevent vaginal and vulvar cancer in women, and genital warts and anal cancer in women and men.

Here's what you need to know about the HPV vaccine.