The Eve Appeal CEO, Athena Lamnisos discusses taking gynae cancers by the short and curlies and the importance of raising awareness of these often very-little talked about cancers.
So, all ready for the beach?
Bikini line sorted?
Why let that cervical smear reminder spoil the summer?
We have a problem.
What’s going on inside our pelvis is a mystery for far too many women. Most depressingly, it’s commonplace for women to tell us that the first time they’ve even heard of one of the five gynae cancers is when they are sitting in a small white room being told they’ve got one.
All that needs to change. Not just for the 21,000 women who are diagnosed with a gynae cancer each year, but for every woman who could be affected by one of these diseases. Every mother, daughter, sister and partner.
The Eve Appeal leads a national campaign to address the stigma and taboos that stop women talking about gynae cancers, their signs and symptoms. Straight-talking is vital. So is using the proper anatomical terms around gynaecological health, talking openly about common symptoms like changes to periods and bleeding, and not using stigmatising or silly terms to describe parts of the female body. These are crucial steps towards better awareness and ultimately the early diagnosis of these diseases.
September is Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month in the UK and each year The Eve Appeal undertake research amongst women aged 16 – 65. This has revealed that 65% of us have a problem using the words vagina or vulva and that just half of under 35s were able to correctly label a vagina on a simple anatomical diagram.
1 in 5 women can’t name a single sign or symptom of a gynaecological cancer, almost a third of 16 – 35 year olds are avoiding going to the doctors because they are too embarrassed to talk about gynae issues, and a third don’t respond to a letter from their GP inviting them for a cervical smear test.
Contrast this lack of knowledge and embarrassment with a recent YouGov survey for Cosmopolitan Magazine which revealed that 98% of women groom their bikini line and 1 in 2 women under 30 remove all their pubic hair.
So, why are we not too embarrassed to show our genitals to a beauty therapist, and are able to put up with the discomfort of waxing, but so embarrassed we can’t go to the doctor and talk about the lump we’ve found in our vulva or the fact we’re bleeding after sex?
We want to get women thinking and talking about this fact – why are we so happy to tackle pubic hair but not gynae symptoms?
