I have recently had some particularly horrible days at work over the holiday period – diagnosing a 43 year old mother of three with metastatic cervical cancer and telling a twenty two year old student that she needs surgery and chemotherapy for aggressive melanoma is the worst part of my job. I hate it. And perhaps what I hate most about it is that both of these situations could have had different outcomes if they had come to their GP sooner.
So I decided to compile a list. A list of resolutions I think all women should pay attention to this New Year. Don’t be that person that I have to break bad news to. Be the healthy person who gets to go home and tick off their resolution checklist with a smile on your face.
1. Get a pap smear. You’d be surprised how many women have never had one, or how many women put it off indefinitely despite getting reminder notices from their GP. If you are sexually active, you need a pap smear at least every 2 years (some people need them more often, depending on what the pap test results are). Sure it’s not fun and yes, it’s not particularly comfortable but neither is cervical cancer. Enough said.
2. Start doing a monthly breast exam. It’s not difficult and takes perhaps a minute to do. Formal breast screening is done free for women over 50 but breast cancer can, and does occur in younger women. A minute a month could save your life.
Top Comments
Dr Margaret McCartney explains why she has decided not to have pap tests. Naturally, she's not Australian, we'd never get that sort of honesty and real information here...we get bad advice, platitudes and spin. Wish she'd move here.
http://www.independent.co.u...
I think the doctors' comments are fairly poor. I don't care what's "cost effective", I want what's best for my health. I have relatives in Europe and don't understand why Aussie women are told to have lots of pap tests. I think it does increase the risk of a false positive and some of the nasty follow-up. I travel to Europe every few years to visit family and plan to visit one of their doctors next time. I've avoided the Aussie program because I felt the advice given to me was over the top. My cousins haven't started having pap tests because they're under 30, whereas many Aussie women are tested every 2 years from their teens. Why? They also have pap tests every 5 years and can test themselves for HPV. I plan to ask about HPV primary testing and the self-test options. I also know English women can buy the Tampap self-tester for HPV (I have an English friend) - why don't we have a self-test option?
Thanks for all the great references too. It's the first time I've seen and read helpful information on this subject. I have already read the research by Angela Raffle, which is amazing. Why are we hearing about this for the first time now and from posters, not from our doctors? I'd also gladly pay for a self-test or better testing option.