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A brand new campaign in England has been launched in order for beauty salons to encourage cervical cancer screenings.

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust released a worrying survey in January revealing that many young women are put off from having smear tests.

According to the charity, eight out of 10 women surveyed stated that they delayed or failed to attend a cervical cancer screening out of embarrassment.

Online beauty marketplace Treatwell has claimed that cervical screening attendance is at a 20-year low, but the number of women choosing to have intimate waxing treatments is on the rise,

To combat the declining amount of women having smear tests, Treatwell has teamed up with Public Health England (PHE) to launch the "Life Saving Wax" initiative.

Over 500 Treatwell partner salons across England will place posters and information about cervical screenings in their salons today.

Beauty therapists are also being supported in their goal to talk to customers about cervical screenings and provide advice on where they can discover the right information.

A study carried out by Treatwell of 1,006 women aged between 25 and 34 revealed that almost half (47 percent) of participants said that they feel comfortable speaking with beauty therapists about personal topics.

Three quarters of the people interviewed stated that they would listen to their beauty therapist's advice.

The director of Screening Programmes at PHE, Professor Anne Mackie, says that the organisation is "thrilled" to be partnering with Treatwell on the campaign.

"Two lives are lost every day to cervical cancer but this needn’t be the case. Cervical screening can stop cancer before it starts as the test identifies potentially harmful cells before they become cancerous and ensures women get the right treatment as soon as possible," Professor Mackie states.

"The decline in numbers getting screened, particularly those aged between 25 – 34, is a major concern as it means millions of women are missing out on a potentially life-saving test."

Beauty director at Treatwell, Liz Hambleton, explains that beauticians are "uniquely placed" to discuss personal topics with customers;

"We see thousands of women booking intimate waxes everyday through Treatwell, so when we heard that women aren’t attending a potentially life-saving test due to embarrassment, we wanted to see how we could change this," Hambleton states.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Treatwell (@treatwell_uk) on

"Just one conversation is all it could take to remind or encourage someone to go for their screening when invited."

Each year in England between 2016 to 2016, about 2,600 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than a quarter of those diagnosed died from the illness.

A study published in the British Journal of Cancer claims that if everyone who was invited for a smear test went to their appointment regularly, an incredible 83 percent of cervical cancer cases could be prevented.

However, more than one in four women who are invited for a smear test don't have the procedure, says Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust.

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YouTuber Zoe Sugg has decided to film her smear test for her five million subscribers and 9.7 million Instagram followers to educate them on cervical cancer screenings.

The 29-year-old warms at the start of the 43-minute-long video that it features "raw conversation around cervical screenings and cervical cancer" and "a teeny bit of blood (not up close!)"

Zoella rose to fame on the video-sharing platform years ago and has since decided to make her intimate health examination public to encourage more women to book in smear tests.

Zoe explains her reasons in her car prior to the appointment for bringing cameras with her, saying that she had asked professionals;

"Is there anything I can do to help encourage more women to book in their smear tests or make people feel a little bit more at ease when they get their letter through the post?".

She decided to dash the uncertainty by filming the whole process and passing on her fans' questions to a nurse; "After ten years of vlogging, this is a moment! I've never done this before!"

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by zoella updates (@wittyzoe) on

Zoe first sits down with a nurse to discuss any concerns and questions from her subscribers, and the nurse urges anyone with worries to contact their GP and get more information.

She also explains how important it is to get the test done as young as possible, as it can detect cells which could later become cancerous.

Zoe then sits in the medical chair after changing into a gown, while the nurse talks viewers through the equipment she will be using. Zoe adds a timer to the screen to show how short the process is.

Image: Pinterest

The timer revealed that the test took only 48 seconds, and the vlogger didn't appear to be in any discomfort. There had been some blood due to the oestrogen in her contraceptive pill, the nurse mentions.

Zoella chats more to the nurse following the procedure and discovered that she had never found anyone to have cervical cancer in all her time of doing smear tests.

She did found evidence in the past of cells which needed removing as soon as possible before they became dangerous. The nurse also urges viewers to check their breasts for lumps.

Zoe was praised by fans for using her platform for a worthy cause, seeing as the procedure is incredibly important for women's health.

Smear tests check for any abnormalities in the cervix which could cause cervical cancer if left untreated, and are offered to women aged 25 and above by the state.

New data from the charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust found that those aged 25 to 35 are put off by the idea of a stranger examining them, and the latest figures show that cervical screening rates among all ages are at their lowest in 20 years.

Feature image: Instagram/@zoesugg

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Gender bias in the medical industry is becoming increasingly more prominent as a direct result of women sharing their stories and opening up about their experiences with pain and illness.

Just last year, a study carried out by the Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health found that women are less likely to be given CPR. Men were more likely to survive cardiac arrest in a public place by a massive 23%.

This year alone, the CervicalCheck scandal has rightfully caused outrage in Ireland, when it was reported that hundreds of smears were in fact out-of-date, which resulted in the wrongful diagnosis of numerous women who could have survived if they had been given the accurate results in time. Only mere weeks ago, cervical cancer sufferer and campaigner Emma Mhic Mathúna died aged 37, a mother of five.

In tragic and life-altering instances such as these, women deserve compassion and respect in their healthcare journeys, it has since been reported that doctors were told to "use their own judgement" regarding whether or not to tell patients about their misdiagnosis.

The right to information surrounding your own body should be the lowest bar set, it cannot simply be a privilege for the few. Bodily autonomy has never been an equal playing field for men and women.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Sandra Murphy (@sandraisinthecity) on

Vicky Phelan sued the US laboratory who wrongfully interpreted the results and was awarded €2.5 million in compensation by the High Court, after finding out in September 2017 that her 2011 smear test was a false negative.

In 2016, researchers at University College London found that women with dementia receive worse medical treatment than their male counterparts with the same condition. I could go on.

Statistics and cases such as these may seem like aberrations in the system, yet so many women claim to experience sexism in their GP clinics, local hospitals and consultants offices every day.

Gender, race and poverty are undeniable biases in healthcare- none of these should ever be ignored.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Erin Jackson (@erin_k_jackson) on

Sexism has been a major factor in medicine since time began, from Aristotle’s declaration that the female form is naturally inferior, to the connection of the uterus with apparent female “hysteria” in the middle ages, trying to get a doctor to empathise with female pain can be draining and hugely frustrating.

This is not helped by the fact that the majority of consultants and specialists are male, and are rarely trained to spot female symptoms or female illnesses in the same detail as those of the male body.

It may seem absurd in this day and age that the Victorians confined women to asylums, whether they showed any evidence of mental illness or not, but doubt still leaks into clinics and hospitals when it comes to female pain.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Gwynn Raimondi MA LMFTA (@gwynnraimondi) on

The fact that women have to go through the most difficult time to get a diagnosis of female illnesses such as fibromyalgia and endometriosis speaks volumes into the lack of funding which goes into researching these diseases, which affect thousands of women nationwide.

Fibromyalgia is still suspended in the disbelief of numerous practitioners, despite women pertaining symptoms for years at a time without gaining any appropriate treatment.

Lady Gaga has recently spoken out as a sufferer of this condition, asking for better healthcare to treat this complex disease which causes total body pain.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Abby Norman (@abbymnorman) on

Women are portrayed as hysterical hypochondriacs, and men are constantly depicted as the silent stoic types, who refuse to show weakness in the form attending a prostate exam that could save their life.

The Girl Who Cried Pain represents a 2001 study by Anita Tarzian and Diane Hoffman which examined pain management and gender. It showed clearly that women were far less likely to be given pain relief or long-term medication for pain (drugs such as Gabapentin, Lyrica and Amitriptylene), and it also revealed that women are less likely to gain the adequate treatment by healthcare providers.

Ask Me About My Uterus by Abby Norman is another fascinating read which describes her torturous experience of trying to get a diagnosis for her endometriosis, a dangerous illness where uterine tissue grows on organs outside of the womb. Often the only treatment is sedatives, or a hysterectomy. Endometriosis UK has claimed that despite the illness affecting 1 in 10 women, it takes an average of nine years to get a diagnosis.

I had to beg my own consultant for a laparoscopy exam after two relentless years of chronic abdominal pain, and he stopped my GP from prescribing me my vital pain medication after claiming that there was “no reason” for my pain. AKA, he didn’t believe me.

I have since been diagnosed in the US after three years with a congenital pain condition where I was born with a vast excess of nerve endings at the base of my spine, which affects over 13% of women, and yet not a single doctor in Ireland or Britain could offer any treatment or advice.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Sarah B. Sweet (@urmultifaceted) on

When I went to America, the specialist who has thousands of female patients who travel across America to see him told me that he is refused funding daily for his clinical trials and research into female pain, for the reason that all the funding is instead siphoned into drugs aimed at male pleasure, despite there already being several high-quality treatments.

According to PubMed, there are currently over 2,000 trials focusing on erectile dysfunction, and a grand total of 300 on EVERY TYPE of female pain.

If you don’t believe that stigma and sexism is prevalent in healthcare, maybe question why it’s so easy for a man to walk out of a GP clinic with a prescription for Viagra, yet it takes a woman in excruciating pain nine years to get told she has endometriosis, a life-long illness.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Hannah Persyn (@_.merely.mystified.matter._) on

Since 1995, it has been confirmed that women experience stimuli at a more intense level than men.

Women have a proven different experience of pain than men, surely they deserve to be taken as seriously?

Yet society has conditioned women to ignore their pain, to handle it with clenched teeth and no complaints.

If you’re going to focus entirely on male pleasure, don’t ignore female pain, because it won’t be kept silent.

By Kate Brayden

Feature image: Instagram/@kdkatcricket

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