Is Your Obesity Preventing You From Undergoing Routine Screening?

In a recent study of more than 8,000 women between the ages of 40 and 75 it was found that severely obese women attended routine screening for breast and cervical cancer far less frequently than women of normal weight. Indeed, severely overweight women attended such screenings only half as often as normal weight women. But just why should this be the case?

The National Cancer Institute recommends that women over the age of 40 should have mammogram screening for breast cancer every one to two years and that women should also have a Pap test to screen for cervical cancer every 3 years once they become sexually active. But a large number of severely obese women seem to be ignoring this advice. This is especially worrying as it is increasingly being felt that there is a link between obesity and both breast and cervical cancers.

At first the researchers thought that this difference might be the result of doctors failing to recommend screening for severely obese women, but there studies found that this was not the case and that women were failing to attend for screening despite their doctor's recommendation.

So what could the answer be?

Well, surprisingly the researchers were unable to come up with an answer and it would seem that the problem might be nothing more than a simple case of embarrassment combined with a failure on the part of the medical profession to recognize this particular problem and to attend to it in practical terms and with sensitivity.

Most doctor's surgeries and clinics make little if any provision for obese patients and it is understandable perhaps that an obese woman attending a clinic for screening and finding that there are no suitably sized gowns for example might well feel uncomfortable. Similarly, sending the staff scurrying around for a pair of scales to weigh the patient might also be the cause of some embarrassment.

Hopefully the mere fact that this problem has been identified, combined with the rapid growth in obesity generally, might spur the medical profession into action and suitable facilities may start to appear in the not too distant future.

In the meantime however if you are faced with the choice between some, albeit understandable, embarrassment and breast or cervical cancer perhaps it would be wise to put up with the former in order to avoid the latter.

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