MORE than one-quarter of women in Scotland cannot name a single correct symptom of any of the five gynaecological cancers, according to new research.
Research charity The Eve Appeal found only 31 per cent of women surveyed said they felt confident that they were well informed about gynaecological health issues.
Its study found the language of gynaecological health was proving an additional barrier to Scottish women opening up about cancer concerns.
More than half (53 per cent) said they had a problem using the words vagina or vulva, while, 28 per cent have resorted to using code names to discuss gynaecological health, according to the poll, which is timed to coincide with Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month
Lack of basic anatomical knowledge was also an issue, with 57 per cent of women north of the Border unable to correctly identify the five areas that can be affected by gynaecological cancer - the womb, cervix, ovaries, vagina and vulva - on a simple diagram. More than one-quarter said they found it very hard to talk to their GPs about gynaecological health concerns.
Helena Morrissey, chairwoman of The Eve Appeal, said: "These cancers have some of the worst outcomes for women, with a 40 per cent mortality rate. Understanding the symptoms will save lives."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article