Cervical Cancer and Thyroid awareness month…
January is cervical cancer and thyroid awareness month and it’s nearly 14 years since the death of TV personality Jade Goody. As an advocate for Women’s health regarding the peri/menopause, and in general, I thought it was worth pausing for thought in order to raise awareness around cervical screening.
Jade sparked a massive upsurge in women taking up cervical screening checks at the time. Many younger women were children at the time and may not remember the impact she had, so a new boost in awareness is needed, as is encouragement to ‘go out and get that test done!’. No one likes a smear test, but it’s less uncomfortable than a blood test and over and done with almost as quickly. It shouldn’t be painful at all so, if it is, do speak up. The lovely nurses have seen EVERYTHING before a million times, and there’s nothing about our bodies that will shock them. If you’re at all nervous, tell the nurse when you go in, they’ll let you listen to music, hold on to a fidget toy/stress ball, talk you through the process, or distract you with chat, whatever works best for you. If you know that you’re overdue, either because life gets in the way, or because you’ve been putting it off, stop reading this right now, and call your doctor’s surgery! You don’t need to be part of the usual morning appointment scramble, that leaves you on hold in a queue for 40 minutes, as it’s different to a normal GP or Nurse appointment. If you call the surgery a bit later in the day they’ll be able to book you in. This Link will take you to the NHS Cervical Screening information page to tell you more about why it’s important, and what’s involved.
Meanwhile, our thyroid gland – hmmm - we don’t tend to think about all the parts of our bodies that are constantly working to keep us going, until something goes wrong. But the more we know, the more likely we are to recognise a possible cause when something doesn’t feel right. This link will take you to the British Thyroid Foundation where you can learn more about what our thyroid does for us, and signs that there might be a problem. Thyroid problems can affect anyone, but women are 10 times more likely to suffer than men, with around 1 in 8 women experiencing a problem in their lifetime. Check out the link, and know what signs to look for.
Many women in relationships with men complain about how hard it is to get them to go to the doctor about anything, but we can be just as bad. We let our busy lives and the needs of others get in our way, and put things off if we think they aren’t important enough (like screening). But as I’ve said before, if we aren’t at our best, we can’t provide our best, so let’s put our health first, go get that screening, make a cup of tea or coffee and take the time to read these links. It could save our lives!
Stay healthy everyone.