For years, couples have relied on condoms to prevent pregnancy and HIV infection. Now, scientists have proof that condoms can also help prevent cervical cancer.

A three year study conducted on female college students at the University of Washington shows that women whose partners always wore condoms were 70 percent less likely to contract the human papilloma virus (HPV) than those whose partners only used a condom 5 percent of the time. HPV infection can cause cervical cancer, along with a host of other sexually transmitted diseases like genital warts and cancers in the genital region.

Researchers invited 24,000 female students between the ages of 18 and 22 to participate in the study. Ultimately, 82 virgin women were selected for the study. Every four months, the participants were tested for HPV with swabs of the cervix and other genital areas. The women also kept online journals of their sexual encounters, noting whether a condom was used and if there was genital contact without a condom.

HPV infection is extremely common, infecting as many as 80 percent of young women within five years of becoming sexually active. The body usually kills the virus before it causes any harm, but in some cases, the viruses can cause lesions that later become cancerous. In the HPV study, none of the women who reported that their partners always used condoms developed lesions during the three year study. Fourteen of the women who reported that their partners used condoms less often were afflicted with lesions.

As many as 630 million people worldwide are currently infected with HPV. All told, cervical cancer strikes over 10,000 American women each year. Of those women infected, 3,500 eventually die of the disease. Worldwide, cervical cancer strikes roughly 500,000 women every year and kills almost 300,000. Despite the scary statistics, earlier this month there was even more exciting news regarding cervical cancer. The government approved the first vaccine against HPV and public health officials are now recommending that girls be vaccinated before they become sexually active.

Now that the HPV vaccine has been approved and condoms have been shown to prevent HPV infection, women now have two powerful weapons against a common and potentially deadly cancer.

About the author: In her spare time, knotheadus writes for Epinions.com and maintains her own Web site, knot-heads.com.