REMARKS made by former Health Minister Edwina Currie linking
promiscuity with cervical cancer have deterred women from undergoing
checks, a conference was told yesterday.
A study into why women often do not keep appointments with their
doctor for vital cervical smear tests has shown one reason is the remark
made by Mrs Currie.
She warned women: ''Don't screw around -- nuns don't get it, virgins
don't get it.''
Dr Martyn Senior, a lecturer at Salford University, told the annual
conference of the Institute of British Geographers in Glasgow, that Mrs
Currie's comments were ''not helpful.''
He added: ''Women associate it with promiscuous behaviour.''
Fellow researcher Ms Sonya Williamson added: ''If people in the public
eye are saying things like that, inherent in it is the implication that
cancer is associated with sexual promiscuity. It is putting people off
having smear tests.''
Their study of 100 women in Manchester, showed fear and worry about
the disease was the chief problem in persuading women to have regular
check-ups.
Dr Senior called for more research to see if the sex of the doctor,
and potential embarrassment for the patient, were problems.
However, more medical information about cancer should be sent out with
invitations to attend the clinics, he said.
Breast screening and smear test facilities at Well Women Clinics in
Liverpool showed that for many women there was a huge hidden iceberg of
need, largely unmet by busy male GPs, researchers at Liverpool
University told the conference.
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