Background: Cervical cancer remains a huge public health problem in Africa. HPV infection, though the necessary cause of this disease, is usually transient rather than persistent. This has led to a search for co-factors that may alter the natural history of this infection. Nutritional antioxidants such as selenium, a component of glutathione peroxidase has been demonstrated to be involved in anti-carcinogenic processes of a variety of human cancers. There is however paucity of data regarding its role in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and by extension invasive cervical cancer. Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the relationship between serum selenium levels and pre-invasive cervical lesions in our environment. Methods: This was a prospective case control study carried out among women attending the Gynae-Oncology clinic of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin-City Edo State. Serum selenium levels of forty eight consenting women with a histological diagnosis of CIN was determined using a Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Forty eight age-matched women with normal cervical cytology served as controls. Sociodemographic data and information on known risk factors for cervical cancer were also taken. Statistical analysis was performed using Student’s t-test for continuous variables and chi-square test or Fisher exact test (where appropriate) used for categorical variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and conditional logistic regression were also carried out. P values ˂0.05 was considered significant. Analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows version 17.0.