Over 200,000 invitations have been sent to the region to encourage women to get tested. Cervical cancer is one of the only cancers with deteriorating survival rates.
Main consequence: the absence of regular screening, which must however be carried out once every three years. Anne Garnier is a doctor and referent for cervical cancer screening in the region.
Radio Scoop: How to explain that so many women are not followed correctly?
Dr Anne Garnier: “In the youngest, it is clearly access to a gynecologist that poses a problem. Those who are followed make smears, but there is a significant part of patients who are prescribed their pills by a general practitioner, who often change doctors and do not have a smear.
More generally, the lack of follow-up often concerns the most precarious women with disabilities who, for various reasons, are far from the health system. The youngest, who will not have children before 30, do not always consult and it is a mistake! “
Radio Scoop: Who can do the smear?
Dr Anne Garnier: “It is a medical gesture. It cannot be done with a nurse or a person working in the laboratory, but doctors, gynecologists and midwives (including those in private practice) can do it.
The problem is that the doctors are often overwhelmed, the gynecologists fewer and fewer. But that shouldn’t stop patients, in many hospital departments, you can get an appointment within three months. “
Radio Scoop: What is the screening campaign?
Dr Anne Garnier: “We have just sent more than 200,000 invitations by mail to encourage the least followed women to be tested. The invitation allows to have the smear completely free, there is no cost to advance. The interest , it is also to ensure follow-up. If the patient agrees, the gynecologist or the doctor can send us the results of the smear and, in function, we relaunch, we make sure that the patient consults again.
It’s a very simple exam, I want to remind you. In most cases, it is negative and we are relieved. If this is not the case, even before the cancer develops, the pre-cancerous lesions can be treated! If you get tested … ”
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