Body shame is putting women off cancer test
MANY young women are not attending smear tests because they are embarrassed about their bodies, a cancer charity has warned.
Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust said it was concerned that body image issues, including perception of what is “normal,” could be putting women’s lives in danger. One in four eligible women (aged 25-64) do not currently take up their invitation for a smear test, rising to one in three among 25-29-year-olds.
It is even as high as one in two in some areas of the UK and uptake is said to be particularly bad in areas including Glasgow.
Women across Scotland were being urged to help reduce their risk of cervical cancer by making an appointment for a test as Cervical Cancer Prevention Week got underway.
The charity carried out a survey which found that more than a third of women (35 per cent) are failing to get tested because of their body shape, while 34 per cent were worried about the appearance of their vulva. Concerns over smelling “normally” (38 per cent) were also a factor. The poll of women aged between 25 and 35 also found a third (31 per cent) admitted they would not go if they had not waxed or shaved their bikini area.
But despite low screening attendance, almost every woman (94 per cent) said they would have a free test to prevent cancer if one was available.
Lauren Bennie, from Glasgow, said she put off having her smear test until the age of 30 because she was “naive, embarrassed and uneducated about the female body”.
While at university in Dundee, she thought she might know the medical students who could be asked in to observe. When she did eventually get a test she was told she needed further examination and it emerged that she had severely abnormal cells that were pre-cancerous on her cervix.
She said: “It was terrifying. I felt angry rather than sad that I had left it so long to go for a smear test.”