*Black women are disproportionately impacted by cervical cancer, largely due to lack of annual screenings that could catch the disease early enough to successfully treat it. The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) and Hologic’s Project Health Equality have recruited singer-songwriter Ciara to front their new initiative Cerving Confidence, hoping she can encourage Black women to commit to their well-woman exams as a part of self-care and protect themselves against cervical cancer.
“As Black women, we need to commit to total self-care, and one of the ways we can do that is by taking care of our health inside and out,” says Ciara. “Through the Cerving Confidence initiative I want to level up conversations about health and address disparities by giving Black women the inspiration and information they need to get a Pap test to screen for cervical cancer.”
Confidence offers life-saving information and screening access to help prevent cervical cancer in Black women. Building on the idea of “serving” looks, Ciara stars in and narrates a new PSA video inviting Black women to join her in #CervingConfidence in their own lives and telling their girlfriends to do the same. She talks about how cervical cancer has impacted women she knows, how easy it is to get tested – “Roll up. Pull up. Boom, bam, it’s done!” says Ciara – and the world she wants to create for her own daughter.
Watch below:
Cervical cancer occurs in the cells of the cervix, which connects the vagina (birth canal) to the upper part of the uterus.4 Routine screening with a Pap test alone is recommended for women ages 21-29. For women ages 30-65, certain studies show that screening with a Pap test in combination with an HPV test (also known as Pap+HPV Together) is the best way to detect disease. The Pap test identifies abnormal cervical cells, while the HPV test detects the presence of the human papillomavirus (HPV). About eight out of 10 women will contract HPV at some point in their lives. Most of the time HPV will go away on its own. However, sometimes it stays and develops into cervical cancer. When detected early, cervical cancer and pre-cancer are highly treatable, and Black women’s lives can be saved.
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