Kath Mazzella OAM has devoted years trying to remove the stigma around women’s gynaecological problems.
I am a survivor of a radical vulvectomy. I guess I don’t need to explain what that means to a medical professional, yet it seems women are in the dark about what this is and what it can do.
I hear that vulva cancer is hard to detect. Many women are often diagnosed and treated for thrush for long periods of time. Vulva cancer survivors say they are often misdiagnosed. I have seen women leave this earth before me because of this. I have grave concerns that medical professionals are not given enough education to know how to detect this cancer.
Symptoms can either be a vulva irritation or a lump. Understandably, often it seems medical professionals are not well equipped or advised to check women’s vulvas for fear of sexual abuse. Which is why it is imperative for women, themselves, to become more confident with their bodies, and with the risks and symptoms of any gynaecological conditions so if they are concerned about a vulval issue, they feel confident enough to request their doctor to check.
The mental effect on women is enormous, not to mention the ripple effect on their partners and families. There is still so much stigma around these issues.
A woman informed me that a female doctor told her, as she was being assessed before she went into surgery, that due to the lichen sclerosus which caused her cancer, her “vagina” was being removed during the operation. Yet, when wheeled into surgery, the male professor said he was removing her vulva not her vagina.
This woman said it felt like doctors were dumbing it down using vagina rather than vulva for the ‘average woman’ to understand. But that is like referring to a penis as testicles – imagine if men were told their testicles were to be removed due to cancer and came out of surgery with the penis removed instead.
No wonder there is mass confusion.
In my search for understanding to find out why all this stigma and misunderstanding existed, I came across the Latin word pudendum, meaning female genitalia and considered the shameful part of a woman. Hence the start of stigma, taboos and misquoting of the vulva.
My message to doctors is to dare to be “vulva aware” for the sake of your mother, sister, daughter, work colleague, friend, or partner.