The Gender Pain Gap and The Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy (CAPH)

I was diagnosed with womb cancer in 2010 following a chest x-ray, a trans-vaginal ultrasound scan and, later, a hysteroscopy under general anaesthetic during which (what turned out to be) a grade 3 endometrial tumour was removed and sent to histology for analysis. Luckily for me, the cancer was early stage.

Aside from fingertip bruises around my right lower leg, a weird vibrating sensation in my right ankle - much like a mobile 'phone going off - and my legs feeling like rubber whenever I walked, there was little else to suggest the trauma my body had gone through whilst unconscious. I was only too glad not to have been awake for the hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy experience.

Many other women are far from that lucky.

The Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy (hysteroscopyaction.org.uk) has collected over 5000 horror stories from women subjected to hysteroscopy in an outpatient setting, often without fully informed consent or adequate - if any - pain relief. 

A spokesperson for the campaign explained:

'Our grassroots community group has been campaigning for several years to gain women the option of safely monitored IV Procedural Sedation Analgesia for outpatient hysteroscopy (OPH / womb endoscopy) already routinely offered to all-gender NHS endoscopy patients, e.g., for colonoscopy.

Ten years ago the stat for severe pain during OPH was 1 in 4, now it's 1 in 3. The NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme has set a target of 90% diagnostic hysteroscopies to be carried out in outpatients without sedation - a money saving decision. This 90% figure is based on the recommendation of ONE gynaecologist, a member of the British Association of Day Surgeons.

CAPH is aware that, as a result of this policy, some women are too traumatised to return to gynae clinics for important cancer checks - hysteroscopy is currently the main diagnostic tool for confirming the presence of womb cancer, meaning some women are dagnosed late.

It's scandalous and heartbreaking and urgently needs to change.'

If you're due to attend for a hysteroscopy and aren't sure what the procedure entails, or what your rights are regarding pain relief, you can find CAPH as follows:

https://www.facebook.com/HysteroscopyA/

@HysteroscopyA

@campaign_painful_hysteroscopy


Rose x

Target Ovarian Cancer Need Our Help

 Hi all,

I know I usually write about womb cancer related "stuff" but today I have a favour to ask around ovarian cancer. 

Womb cancer and ovarian cancer are two different cancers and the prognosis for ovarian cancer is very often much worse than for womb cancer.

The charity Target Ovarian Cancer is currently asking people in the UK to sign an open letter, calling on UK governments to take action to end the awareness crisis in ovarian cancer.

You can add your signature to the letter via the following link:

https://campaign.targetovariancancer.org.uk/page/97923/petition/1


The more people across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who sign this letter, the harder it will be for decision makers to ignore it.

I've already added my signature. Please join me by adding yours too.

Love and thanks,

Rose x

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Hi Everyone!

Here we are on a very dull, grey, Winter's afternoon in the UK.

It's been a fair while since I last wrote a post of any kind for this blog - my last two posts have been the Data Protection Notice from Google so that you all know what you're getting into when you read blogs hosted via the blogger.com site! And that's because it's a legal requirement that you're told. You'll probably see the notice pop up anyway whenever you read posts on this blog, but I've shared it just in case you don't. 

I'm not even sure this is the most up-to-date site for blogs on Google any more! But, hey, this is the blog site I have so this is the blog site I'll use from time-to-time. At least for now. (She says, having not written anything at all for several years...)

I only came on today to say hi this time around. We're heading towards Christmas again here in the UK - this year (ditto last year) seems to have passed very quickly. And, as I'm pretty sure you all know - unless you've been in deep outer space for the last couple of years, with no means of communicating with Earth - the world is still being dominated by Covid-19 and its various mutations. Although, if non-Covid headlines are anything to go by, there are various human beings apparently hell bent on world domination too. 

I gave up buying newspapers and watching TV news several years back - it makes for a much happier mindset, not to mention life in general!

So, on that note, as I've said hi, I'll leave this ramble here for today.

Love to anyone still out there who reads this blog!

Love Rose x

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Data Protection Notice

'This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyse traffic. Your IP address and user agent are shared with Google, together with performance and security metrics, to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics and to detect and address abuse.'

Data Protection Notice

'This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse.'

Happy New Year!

We're around ninety minutes into 2018 here in the UK and I hope you've all had a good start to this new year. Wherever you are in the world, may 2018 be happy for you.

Love Rose x



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Christmas: The Dreaded C Word?

So here we are in December and hurtling rapidly towards Christmas Day which is now less than a week away.

Christmas can be a difficult time of year for many, triggering feelings of loneliness and loss; and it's not only cancer patients who might struggle during the festive season. Anyone who is grieving the loss of a loved one, experiencing a relationship break up or going through any serious illness, can find this time of year exhausting and overwhelming.

Sometimes it's the opposite of loneliness that worries us at this time of year. Do you dread the annual visit of that one relative who finds fault with whatever you do no matter how hard you try? Or does sibling rivalry rear its ugly head when you're cooped up with your loved ones for hours on end?

Maybe your Christmas concerns are altogether different. Perhaps you spend the time worrying because you've maxed out your credit card trying to make sure everyone has a good time, but you wonder how you'll pay off the bills at the end of it all.

There's no doubt that Christmas can be an incredibly challenging time of year for many, while others approach it with good humour. Only yesterday my yoga instructor commented that she hasn't put up Christmas decorations this year because they only gather dust before having to be taken down again!

For me, Christmas is a quiet, peaceful time spent with immediate family. This will be my eighth Christmas post-cancer and I'm grateful to have survived yet another year. It's another milestone reached.

Whatever Christmas means to you, whether you celebrate or not, have a safe and happy time this December.

Love Rose x



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