42% of women in Wales wrongly believe that cervical screening will detect ovarian cancer. With no viable screening programme, it is vital that every woman knows the symptoms and that we address the misconceptions around ovarian cancer to ensure women feel empowered to contact their GP at the earliest opportunity. That’s why this #OvarianCancerAwarenessMonth we’re joining Target Ovarian to help raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer and ensure more women know cervical screening will not detect ovarian cancer.
While the Welsh Government accepted recommendation 11 in the Senedd Health Committee’s Unheard report, which would ensure information provided at cervical screening appointments makes clear that such screening does not test or screen for other gynaecological cancers and includes information about the symptoms of other gynaecological cancers, we have not yet seen a timeline for when we can expect to see this change.
Claire’s Campaign is doing all it can to get the Welsh Government and the other public bodies to implement all of the Unheard recommendations, including recommendation 11, and we will continue to scrutinise activity (or the lack of activity) in the meantime.
