Cancer is first discovered during about 1 in every 1000 pregnancies. Of these cancers diagnosed during pregnancy about 1 in 4 is a cancer of the cervix (the neck of the womb).

This means that cancer of the cervix appearing during pregnancy is uncommon. As a result of this, the relatively small number of women in this situation has made it difficult to produce absolutely reliable statistics.

Fortunately, however, many of the cervical cancers that are discovered during pregnancy are at a very early stage when they are still only affecting the superficial layer of the cervix (so-called 'micro-invasive disease').

Cancers that have not begun to invade deeply into the cervix can often be treated by a type of minor surgery that can be carried out during pregnancy called 'conization'. This involves removing the cancerous area and a margin of normal tissue but leaves the cervix largely intact. This means that it is usually still possible to have further pregnancies at a later date. Also, there is no evidence that there is any greater risk of the cancer coming back as a result of another pregnancy.

If the cancer is at a later, invasive stage, then the treatment will usually involve either surgery or radiotherapy and unfortunately both of these unavoidably lead to permanent sterility so a further pregnancy will not be an option.