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25 JUNE, 2024
Women’s Health Matters Star Weekly is shining a light on the healthcare issues facing women in the western and northern suburbs. Over the next 12 months, our ‘Women’s Health Matters’ campaign will focus on the challenges facing women, including access to specialised and preventative healthcare, the availability of culturally appropriate healthcare and the adequacy of mental health services. We hope the campaign will help to raise awareness of critical healthcare issues for women and advocate for underserved communities in the west and north, particularly those in fringe suburbs and from minority communities. We want to empower women in the north-west to address their healthcare needs. Included in the campaign will be stories of resilience highlighting personal accounts of women who have overcome health challenges, advocacy initiatives, community engagement and collaborations with healthcare organisations. We also want to hear from you about your individual healthcare experiences. If you have a story you would like to share, please get in touch via westeditorial@starweekly.com.au Highly trained professionals are taking care of women’s health in the west every day. (Picture courtesy: Royal Women’s Hospital)
Screening breakthrough By Hannah Hammoud A ground-breaking national campaign promoting the HPV self-collection option for cervical screening is helping bring empowerment and choice to women’s health across Australia. This initiative aims to address health equity by reaching under-screened populations, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, culturally and linguistically diverse communities (CALD), and patients with disabilities. The National Cervical Screening Program
encourages women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 74 years of age to have a cervical screening test every five years through their healthcare provider, in a bid to reduce illness and death from cervical cancer. The Cancer Council details that self-collection is when a woman or person with a cervix takes their own sample for cervical screening. A health care professional provides a cotton swab as well as instructions on how to collect the sample. A private place is also offered to collect the sample. The Department of Health and Aged Care reports that about 800 women are diagnosed
with cervical cancer in Australia each year, and about 70 per cent of these cases occur in women who have never screened or were not up-to-date with their screening. GenWest sexual and reproductive health team leader Sarah Lorrimar said the initiative will help to bridge the gap in cervical screening participation among diverse populations. “It’s going to make a huge difference to how many people are accessing a cervical screen,” she said. “Cervical screens can be uncomfortable for anyone. For most people, going and getting a cervical screen isn’t the most pleasant experience but then there’s other
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people where the process actually makes them feel unsafe and has emotional and physical effects on them too. There are people that have had medical trauma and sexual trauma that the process of getting a cervical screen can be extremely daunting for them and being able to self-collect means that they’ve got a greater sense of safety, comfort, and control.” Ms Lorrimar said for women who have undergone female genital cutting, the traditional cervical screening process can be particularly daunting. ■ Continued: Page 8.
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