Women's health (TW)

[Till23]

Thanks for this thread @avant-garde it is a very important topic.

I’m glad you got through your testing ok.

 I did not have a screening mammogram for about 10 years after I was supposed to have one because of my CSA background. When I finally worked up the courage I was found to have cancer (now treated). My GP was really leaning on me to have a Cervical Screening Test once I had the first cancer diagnosis. I did the home test which turned out to be negative but that was of course about 50 years overdue because I was a child at time of CSA, so I was very lucky.

 I had quite a deterioration in MH during the breast cancer treatment due to some of it being very similar and triggering. Because I was now in the cancer system I had a follow-up mammogram a year after first diagnosis and was found to have another cancer. Again my MH suffered during treatment but not as bad the second time. I had a very good psychologist through the oncology service to help me through the treatment.

It is known that people with MH issues have screening rates lower than the rest of the population. It is also known that people who have survived abuse have worse health outcomes in general and some of this is that they don’t seek medical assistance.

So thank you for a very important topic @avant-garde 

[outlander]

well done on getting through those tests today @Snowie @avant-garde
i understand those feelings and the challenges that come with having it done too

[PeppyPatti]

So impressed with the ladies who have opened up here 

@Till23 I'm so sorry what you have gone through with cancer. My heart is with you. Your a brave strong woman to have gone through that.

@@...

@Bow Im sitting with you. If I was with you ide make you a cup of tea and we didn't need to talk unless you wanted to. Your sensitive and brave and strong to even write this. Thankyou for posting. 

Aren't we awesome how we can sit in solidarity to each other. I am here with you. I support you. 

• @avant-garde thanks for making me aware of your post. When I went through menopause well I was 50-52 years old. I didn't feel anything !!  @rav3n @outlander @Snowie @Snowie @Till23 @outlander @Glisten 

I couldn't use tampons well  when I was young. I forgot I had one once when about 22 and was too freaked out to use them again !! I used to go to these women centres in the middle of Perth in the 80s and 90s. I went on late night marches on domestic violence, shave my hair, dyed what hair I had bright pink and wore overalls. I went to free women's how to throw off assaults but somehow I missed all the talks about knowing your reproductive system and the make up of women's bodies. 

Still had huge fun. We were passionate. 

I never got rid of the overalls. 

[Glisten]

@avant-garde More power to you sister. I stand in solidarity with anyone who speaks out for Women’s health.

I’m fortunate that one of my friends is a recently retired Obstetrician. She delivered both my grandchildren.

I was informed that women who are capable of having a “natural” childbirth constitute 1.5% of the population.

This small percentage also write the books 📚 telling the rest of us how easy it is.

My friend also treated menopausal women in Mental Health facilities. No one talks about the percentage of women so badly affected by menopause that they become suicidal or catatonic.

@PeppyPatti @outlander @Snowie @tyme 

https://womenslifecyclesummit.au/

[Ru-bee]

@Glisten absolutely it is shocking to me how little we speak about those potential mental health effects of menopause. I had no idea until my last job where I spoke to quite a few women who were experiencing severe mental health difficulties for the first time during menopause. 

[Till23]

Thanks @PeppyPatti but I was very lucky and both my cancers were successfully treated and now I just take a preventative tablet once a day.

I absolutely agree @Glisten, the MH effects of menopause are often only referred to in a snide, half joking way. Like “oh she must be menopausal”, like “oh she must be having a period”. Women are half the population (actually slightly more), but our health problems are hardly even on the radar 

@Bow  so sorry to hear about your cancer I hope you are going ok with it. It is known that cancer rates are higher in survivors of childhood abuse.

This is a great thread @avant-garde 

[tyme]

Thanks for this much needed thread @avant-garde !

[avant-garde]

I was talking to a male friend today and he asked me what I had been up to that week when I unashamedly said "oh I had a cervical screening test"

And he goes to me "that was too much information"

Why is that too much information?!? It's a normal female thing, not a taboo thing! 

But in all seriousness, those with partners or spouses, do you guys talk about this stuff like periods and menopause and such? 

@tyme @Till23 @Ru-bee @Glisten @PeppyPatti 

[Glisten]

@avant-garde was your friend born in the 50s? That is such an Old Man thing to say.

If he wasn’t born in the 50s, does he know he made a D-head comment?

[avant-garde]

@Glisten

He's normally a D-head, this is nothing new

But it is men like him who reinforce the stigma that we bear the repercussions of