A Call to Action for Women’s Medical Rights
November 22, 2009 by Barbara Jacoby
Filed under Breast Cancer, Creating Happiness
As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I have been carefully watching all of the controversy that has been going on from the testing of young women for the breast cancer gene through the universal health care debates and now, the new recommendations for breast cancer and cervical cancer screening. I have finally reached the point where I am really angry and disgusted with the way that women’s issues are being handled in this country. Therefore, I am sending out a call to all women everywhere to stand up and be counted in the fight to allow our own doctors to make the decisions with regard to our personal health and testing needs rather than any insurance company or the federal government or special committee or any other group that might be devised.
I don’t know of a single woman who has not been touched by cancer, either personally or through a family member or a friend or co-worker. And every single woman who has ever had cancer or will have cancer is uniquely different just as we are different from each other in every other way. There is no such thing as applying the exact same standards to every person because of these differences and for some federally funded committee to make such a recommendation is the most absurd method of deciding medical care for a woman that I could ever imagine. And furthermore, to exclude breast self-examination as a method of discovering cancer was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me as that is exactly how I discovered my own cancer.
I am asking every woman who reads this to share it with all of her friends and family members and to request that each and every one of us contact our legislators and request that they carefully consider their votes on the universal healthcare issue and how it will affect women’s issues. I would also request that you ask those same legislators to additionally keep an eye on the insurance companies to assure that we get the testing and treatments that are recommended by our doctors as part of our coverage.
This country is not founded on the basis of the survival of the fittest but rather on equality for everyone. We do not allow the taking of another person’s life in this country by another individual, even in our healthcare facilities. By not allowing the tests recommended by our trained medical personnel, you are denying medical care to people who may ultimately die as a result. I don’t believe that any of us have the right to play God and determine who might live or die. This is the very reason that we continue to fund research for better testing and better treatments and the discovery of a cure for every type of cancer. And the women in this country deserve the best that medicine has to offer. We are all in this together so let’s fight together. We can win if we are willing to speak up. Believe me, it is time that women receive equal treatment in medical matters.
I would love to hear your views. COMMENTS
Amen, sistergirl! Thanks for your blog. My blog this week was about the same topic. I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR IN NUMBERS TOO BIG TO IGNORE!
Right on. I hope women everywhere are like you and continue to write and blog about this issue. Don’t let this story get buried under the rubble of what is being served for the White House Thanksgiving dinner or under the pile of Black Friday shopping stories. We will all read your blog and please keep writing and sharing everywhere with everyone. It is great to have you on our team. Together we will make a difference.
This new suggestion for women and mammograms and pap smears is truly outrageous. This Country is becoming more and more controlled. We are the land of the free, but it seems now we have to be told on when we can get ourselves checked for early detections. The whole point of of these testings is early detection, but if we have to wait then it really isn’t early then now is it?
You are spot on. We are losing our freedoms by the minute. Can you imagine telling women not to do self-exams as well! Of course the whole point of testing is early detection. It is sounding more and more to me as though women are continuing to be de-valued in this society. We have been ignored in medical research for as long as I can remember and if you look at the fund raising that is being done for breast cancer research, it is being done by women-led organizations to a great extent. So let’s stay united and not give our power away.
My older sister had breast cancer in 1955 at the age of 34. She had the breast removed but she died in 1957 at the age of 36 because the cancer spread to her brain. She left 2 young children, ages 5 and 8. A mammogram could probably have saved her life. What are they trying to do….MOVE BACKWARDS INSTEAD OF FORWARD.
I am a 2-time Breast Cancer Survivor. The first time was in 1994 at the age of 52 and the second was in 2005 at the age of 64. I found the lump myself in 1994 but I would probably NEVER have found the lump in 2005 because my breasts were large and it was in the back center of my breast at the back wall. I had radical mastectomies with chemo both times. The first chemo damaged my heart muscle and put me on disability but I WAS ALIVE. These people should have to experience what we survivors go through.
I have twin daughters who are 33 years old and I am scared to death for them and also my 3 year old granddaughter. THANK GOD for mammograms. We must stop this. What are these people thinking!!!!!!!!
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you so very much for sharing your story and your sister’s story. There is nothing more powerful that you can do than to share your experiences with others in order to drive home the message. You are one fantastic role model for every person who has ever faced cancer in any form. I am also working to help to raise funds to assist others to be able to get the testings that they cannot afford, including gene testing to find out if a woman is a carrier of the gene for breast cancer. And I pray that your daughters and granddaughter will never have to know or experience what you have had to deal with. You are awesome.
I’m appalled and at loss for words by these new regulations for womens health. In a time like today with all the technology and doctors that we have, its like we are taking a step back instead of forward. I was 21 when I had missed going and getting my yearly exam. I figured well I’m not sexually active at the moment and hadn’t been for a while. I went back when I was 22 and I had three different spots on my cervix that the doctor told me were all precancerous cells in stage 3, stage 4 being cancer. If I would have went yearly like I was suppose to I would have caught this in the very innocent stage of stage one. And to start at 21, are you kidding me. My gyno always said you should start getting yearly exams when you begin having sex, not at 21. I’m saddened for every young girl and grown woman out there. It scares me to think what our future holds.
The rules for mammograms I have 3 words….ARE YOU JOKING! I have heard many stories of women who have gone yearly for mammograms and were told if they would have waited 6 more months it could have been too late. What if that 2 year were in affect then, that means these women would have died. This is already a terrible disease that attacks and takes so many precious women yearly, and to take risk with such ridiculous regulations and rules, well I’m so angered and pissed. I don’t know if this has to do with the whole government maybe taking control of our health insurance or what, but its absolutely ridiculous and unfair to every women in this country.
Thank you for sharing and thank you for your outrage. I must say that as each day goes by, I get angrier from some of the things that I hear. For instance, I had dinner with a male friend this evening who happens to be an attorney. He knows about my cancer and yet views the whole thing regarding the guidelines as an issue where the Republicans are trying to stir up trouble for the Democrats and their health care program. I was shocked. He didn’t seem to get the fact that the ramifications from these guidelines would be absolutely devastating to women all across this country and would result in so many more deaths. But then if you look how women have been treated with regard to other issues, it isn’t a surprise. Look at heart attacks in women. All the studies are always done on men and the warning signs are those for heart attacks in men. How many women have been studied and how many doctors even know the warning signs of a heart attack in women. This is just one more kick in the health care for women.
I think that everybody has said what I feel. I agree with everybody and will do what I can to voice my feelings. I am so glad that everybody seems to be outraged by this. I think we are all so tired of things that are spinning out of control in this country right now. We are tired of being force fed and we are now speaking out to make a difference. Notice how they waited until RIGHT AFTER Breast Cancer Awareness Month to share this with us. We just came out of a month where we are all raising awareness and campaigning for women to get mamograms ~ and then they slam us with this recommendation. Thanks for sharing Barbara! I completely agree and will do my part in my little corner of the world. Blessings to all!
Thank you so much for your support and help. If all of us do our part in our little corners of the world, I believe that we will have the whole thing covered in no time at all. We can do this. I didn’t even think about the fact that they waited until right after breast cancer awareness month. What a slap in the face.
I’ve taken action and have blogged a bit of something on the Youth Voice Initiative myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/youthvoiceinitiative Thanks for pushing this more!
Thank you so very much for your efforts and for your support of others by sharing your own story. You have had more than enough to deal with in your life and are a wonderful inspiration to all of us. You are greatly appreciated.
The newly released recommendations about breast cancer screening have me OUTRAGED and mad as hell!
ONLY by mammogram was my tiny little 1 cm lump detected at the age of 47. Too small to feel by self or clinical exams.
How dare anyone try and tell ME that mammograms are not necessary nor effective before the age of 50, when that little 15 minute test most likely saved my life!
I live in Cincinnati, Oh and our tri-state area (Ind, KY & OH) has one of the highest cancer rates in the nation! My breast surgeon is convinced that the effects of living in a high manufacturing area are a great contribution to breast cancer.
I am friends with 4 other women in this area that were diagnosed in their 40’s, by either self exam or mammogram. Only 1 actually lost both breasts to BC. The other 4 of us chose to remove the healthy breast to prevent reocurrance. Not sure about the others, but my “healthy” breast had pre-cancerous cells that were not present in my mammogram that was done a mere 6 months prior.
We need to be screaming from the roof tops about this report. I can’t find one breast surgeon or one oncologist on this panel. Just a bunch of pencil-pushing professors with a bunch of fancy letters behind their names.
Search the Us Preventive Services Task Force website for the full article.
It makes women sound like a bunch of silly little girls whining about anxiety and stress from waiting for the outcome of tests and false-positives.
They want to deny access to quality health care because us ladies might not be able to handle waiting for test results? Give me a break! It was not a whole lot of fun waiting for tests to come back. But having chemo, losing my hair, aching from head to toe, constipation, sebacious cysts, and a bi-lateral mastectomy was no walk thru the park either! But ya know what?
I AM ALIVE!
I am blessed to be here, to have survived the whole nasty ordeal and able to help others on the very ugly journey of BC, and will do whatever I can to make sure that all women have access to the health care that they need!
I am so glad that we have a team member like you who has first-hand knowledge also. I am going to send this message out to every person that I can right now and I hope that you will do the same. We need to fight and we need to fight now. Congratulations on your survival and your willingness to help others. We can all do this if we stick together.