Sexually abused women much less likely to be screened for cervical cancer

Procedure evokes traumatic memories and feelings of powerlessness and shame

2012-10-02

(Press-News.org) [Barriers to cervical screening in women who have experienced sexual abuse: an exploratory study 2012; 38: 214-20 (Research) The effect of childhood sexual abuse on women's lives and their attitudes to cervical screening 2012; 38:1-2 (Editorial)]

Women who have been sexually abused as children or young adults are much less likely to get screened for cervical cancer than other women, indicates exploratory research published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.

Figures published last year by the national NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme indicate that around one in five eligible women had not been tested for the disease within the previous five years, as recommended.

Screening can help cut the risk of developing an invasive and potentially fatal cervical cancer. And a recent audit showed that only just over a quarter of such cases in England arose in women who had attended for regular checks as part of the national screening programme.

The research team analysed the responses of 135 women to a survey posted on the website of the British charity, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC). Four respondents also took part in a discussion group early in 2011.

The women were asked for their views and experiences of cervical screening, and what type of abuse they had endured.

Among those aged 24 to 65—the current age band for cervical screening in England—three out of four (77.5%) said they had been screened at some point, and almost half had been screened within the previous five years.

But only just over four out of 10 (42%) of those aged 25 to 49 had been screened within the previous 3 years, in line with the current UK recommendation.

And one in four of this age group had not been screened for more than five years while one in 10 had not been screened at all.

Among the 124 women who responded to the open ended questions about what put them off screening, 32 said they had no intention of going or going again. Two said they would rather die than endure the procedure ever again.

Almost one in four (23%) respondents made comments reflecting low self esteem, and one in five (21%) said they found the procedure painful. And almost one in three (29%) said the procedure made them feel powerless, while 38% said it evoked similar feelings to those they experienced at the time of the abuse.

One in five highlighted issues relating to trust, safety and disclosure, while one in three made at least one comment relating to fear and anxiety.

One in eight also complained that few healthcare professionals understood the impact of sexual abuse on the ability to go through with the procedure and that the screening invitation letters contain no signposting to sources of information and support for those who might have been abused.

An accompanying editorial, written by NAPAC's training and development manager Sarah Kelly, points out that the charity receives around 350 calls/emails from adult survivors every month, two thirds of whom are women.

"Self worth, self esteem, and self concept....impact on how women access health services or care for and value themselves," writes Ms Kelly.

"Many of the female survivors we hear from, talk about their fears and anxieties when accessing services, particularly sexual health, gynaecology, and breast wellbeing," she says.

And she adds: "Many survivors are aware of the increased risk of not being screened and we repeatedly hear that some would rather deal with cervical cancer if it develops than face the experience of regular testing."

### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Misconduct, not error, accounts for most scientific paper retractions

2012-10-02

October 1, 2012 — (Bronx, NY) — In sharp contrast to previous studies suggesting that errors account for the majority of retracted scientific papers, a new analysis—the most comprehensive of its kind—has found that misconduct is responsible for two-thirds of all retractions. In the paper, misconduct included fraud or suspected fraud, duplicate publication and plagiarism. The paper's findings show as a percentage of all scientific articles published, retractions for fraud or suspected fraud have increased 10-fold since 1975. The study, from a collaboration between three ...

Potential new class of drugs blocks nerve cell death

2012-10-02

Diseases that progressively destroy nerve cells in the brain or spinal cord, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are devastating conditions with no cures. Now, a team that includes a University of Iowa researcher has identified a new class of small molecules, called the P7C3 series, which block cell death in animal models of these forms of neurodegenerative disease. The P7C3 series could be a starting point for developing drugs that might help treat patients with these diseases. These findings are reported in two new studies published ...

Homolog of mammalian neocortex found in bird brain

2012-10-02

A seemingly unique part of the human and mammalian brain is the neocortex, a layered structure on the outer surface of the organ where most higher-order processing is thought to occur. But new research at the University of Chicago has found the cells similar to those of the mammalian neocortex in the brains of birds, sitting in a vastly different anatomical structure. The work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms a 50-year-old hypothesis about the identity of a mysterious structure in the bird brain that has provoked decades of scientific ...

Penn researchers connect baboon personalities to social success and health benefits

2012-10-02

PHILADELPHIA — Whether human or baboon, it helps to have friends. For both species, studies have shown that robust social networks lead to better health and longer lives. Now, a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers has helped show that baboon personality plays a role in these outcomes, and, like people, some baboons' personalities are better suited to making and keeping friends than others. The research was conducted by psychology professor Robert Seyfarth and biology professor Dorothy Cheney, both of Penn's School of Arts and Sciences. They collaborated with ...

A simple blood test could be used to detect breast cancer

2012-10-02

A SIMPLE blood test could one day be a more accurate way to test for the early signs of breast cancer than using mammograms to spot a lump say researchers today (Tuesday), as Breast Cancer Awareness Month gets underway. They also hope the blood test could improve treatment by detecting whether breast cancer patients are likely to relapse and what drugs their particular type of tumour will respond to. This pioneering new clinical study – funded by Cancer Research UK in collaboration with the University of Leicester and Imperial College London – is about to start in the ...

Breakthrough in understanding lung cancer vulnerabilities points the way to new targeted therapy

2012-10-02

More effective treatments for one of the deadliest forms of cancer are one step closer thanks to groundbreaking research from an international collaborative study. Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cologne have identified the dependencies of multiple Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) types – paving the way for clinical trials of new targeted treatments which could revolutionise the current approach. Around 40,000 people are diagnosed annually with lung cancer in the UK, and SCLC accounts for nearly one in five of all these cases. Unfortunately, the prognosis ...

Severely obese are fastest growing group of overweight Americans, study finds

2012-10-02

The proportion of Americans who are severely obese -- those people 100 pounds or more overweight -- continues to increase rapidly and much faster than those with moderate obesity, but the rate of growth has slowed, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The RAND study found that from 2000 to 2010, the proportion of Americans who were severely obese rose from 3.9 percent of the population to 6.6 percent -- an increase of about 70 percent. The findings mean that more than 15 million adult Americans are morbidly obese with a body mass index of 40 or more. The good ...

Meeting pigs' phosphorous requirements with fermented soybean meal

2012-10-02

Fermented soybean meal (FSBM), considered a promising substitute for fish meal in weanling pig diets because of its protein content, lower cost, and lack of anti-nutritional factors, may have an additional advantage. University of Illinois researchers recently found that pigs digest the phosphorous in FSBM better than the phosphorus in conventional soybean meal. "Most of the P in soybean meal is bound to phytate, so it's not available to pigs," explained animal sciences professor Hans Stein. Previous research by Stein's group found that pigs digest the phosphorous in ...

Marine animals could hold the key to looking young

2012-10-02

Sea cucumbers and sea urchins are able to change the elasticity of collagen within their bodies, and could hold the key to maintaining a youthful appearance, according to scientists at Queen Mary, University of London. The researchers investigated the genes of marine creatures such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers, known as echinoderms. They found the genes for "messenger molecules" known as peptides, which are released by cells and tell other cells in their bodies what to do. The study was published online in the journals PLOS One and General and Comparative Endocrinology. ...

Climate change cripples forests

2012-10-02

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 1, 2012— Combine the tree-ring growth record with historic information, climate records and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That's the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Arizona, and several other partner organizations. Described in a paper published in Nature Climate Change this week, "Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality," ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

CMD-OPT model enables the discovery of a potent and selective RIPK2 inhibitor as preclinical candidate for the treatment of acute liver injury

Melatonin receptor 1a alleviates sleep fragmentation-aggravated testicular injury in T2DM by suppression of TAB1/TAK1 complex through FGFR1

Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals Shen-Bai-Jie-Du decoction retards colorectal tumorigenesis by regulating the TMEM131–TNF signaling pathway-mediated differentiation of immunosuppressive dendritic ce