Texas Cancer Patients May Be At Higher Risk For DivorceDeveloping certain types of cancers may increase your chances of getting a divorce, says a rece

By:Smartfinds Marketing

Developing certain types of cancers may increase your chances of getting a divorce, says a recent Norwegian study. Presented this month at the European Cancer Organization conference in Barcelona, Spain, the studys results surprised the international community. As Norways divorce rates are comparable to most other developed countries, the results are considered applicable to similar nations, including the United States.

Researchers evaluated marriage and divorce registries from 1974 to 2001, which included 2.8 million individuals. They also integrated the divorce rates of 215,000 cancer survivors and couples without a history of cancer in their relationships. Results revealed that a woman with cervical cancer has a forty percent higher chance of getting a divorce than similar women without the disease. Men with testicular cancer also show a twenty percent greater likelihood of dissolving a marriage after diagnosis. Divorce rates for both cancers decrease as patients age.

This increase only proved true for cervical and testicular cancers; for patients with most other cancers, their likelihood of divorce actually decreased slightly in the years following diagnosis. Breast cancer patients, for instance, are less likely than other, non-cancer infected women, to separate from their partners.

Such statistics could be particularly concerning for states like Texas, which suffers from the second highest incidence of cervical cancer in the U.S., and a higher-than-average mortality rate for the disease. This parallels global rates, in that cervical cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women statistics that include third-world countries in their averages. But most sexually active individuals contract, at some point, at least one form of the virus associated with ninety-nine percent of all cases of cervical cancer, and some cases of testicular cancer: the Human papillomaviruses. Half of all sexually active men and women have at least one strain of it, and by age fifty, over eighty percent of women do. Most womens immune systems will clear the viruses from their bodies within two years, but for some, the issue becomes much more concerning.

Risk factors for cervical cancer include not only sexual activity and general health concerns, but also anything that may hinder consistent preventative healthcare. This is because pre-cancerous conditions associated with cervical cancer are relatively easy to detect and, with early diagnosis, are almost one hundred percent curable. Without proper screening, however, early detection rates go down and death rates go up. Twenty-five percent of all Texans lack health insurance, a factor directly correlated with less access to healthcare, according to the Commonwealth Fund. This could help explain why death rates for the disease in Texas are so much higher than in other states. Urban centers, like Austin, Dallas, and Houston, may offer easier access to low-income screening programs than rural areas.

Although precise reasons for divorces in the Norwegian study were not recorded, professionals in the medical community have their suspicions. Cervical and testicular cancers tend to be diagnosed at earlier ages, and are far more curable than other forms of the disease. Older couples may be more committed to each other, as well, and reproductive cancers (obviously) greatly affect the sexual life of couples.

Astri Syse, an epidemiologist at the Norwegian Cancer Registry, commented, It seems to be worse for your marriage to get cancer early.

Lesley Fallowfield, a psycho-oncologist at Sussex University -- who was not affiliated with the Norwegian research project -- noted that sex tends to be particularly important for young peoples relationships, and that a diagnosis affecting that aspect of their connection may be particularly damaging. No patient develops cancer in a social vacuum, she said. The diagnosis will always have an impact on a loved one, and in some cases, they may decide to leave.

As horrid as that sounds, it also appears to be true. The 2004 divorce rate in Texas was 3.6 per 1,000 residents, according to the Texas Vital Statistics Unit (VSU). The VSU also recorded the lowest marriage rates that same year since the registry began in 1968.

We clearly need to be looking closer at how cancer affects a patients loved ones. Theres more to treating cancer than just medical care, said Fallowfield.

Being aware of recent health studies that could affect your mental and physical well being is an important part of taking care of yourself. How you do so will certainly affect you as you age, and eventually your wallet, as well. If youre a young individual who tries to keep informed and maintain a healthy lifestyle, you should take a look at the revolutionary, comprehensive and highly affordable individual health insurance solutions created by Precedent specifically for you. Visit our website, www.precedent.com , for more information. We offer a unique and innovative suite of individual health insurance solutions, including highly competitive HSA-qualified plans, and an unparalleled real time application and acceptance experience.

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