Purpose: high parity and/or young age at first sexual intercourse have been reported as risk factors for cervical cancer development. Actually, little research has been devoted to these risk factors. The aim of the present study was to analyze the parity and age at first sexual intercourse in women with invasive cervical cancer. Methods: we have retrospectively studied the age at first sexual intercourse and parity of 362 women with invasive cervical cancer diagnosed at the Outpatient Clinic of Oncological Gynecology of the "Faculdade de Medicina do Triângulo Mineiro" from 1978 to 1995. The cases were analyzed according to the date of diagnosis and divided into three groups: from 1978 to 1983 with 65 cases, from 1984 to 1989 with 127 cases and from 1990 to 1995 with 170 cases. Results: the results showed that high parity (4 or more births) diminished from the first to the third period (82, 67.3 and 63.8%, respectively) (p<0.02, chi² test). The first sexual intercourse before 18 years occurred respectively in 59.2, 54.5 and 55.5% of the patients (p, not significant). Conclusions: it was concluded that high parity seems to be related to invasive cervical cancer, although in recent years the parity decreased. The first sexual intercourse occurred before the age of 18 years in the patients of the three periods.
Cancer; Uterine cervix; Risk factors
