Says she had positive Pap smear results but doctors didn’t pay heed. DESIGN: FAIZAN DAWOOD
She was speaking at a seminar on ‘Cervical Cancer’ organised at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Pakistan on Saturday.
Afshan said she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2009 and despite having a positive Pap smear result, the doctors did not pay heed. As a result, she went from one prominent doctor to another. “Earlier, I had smelly discharge so I sought a doctor and she said there are some issues but advised to wait for six months,” she said. “Every time I visited the doctor she told me to wait for six months until the bleeding started. I thought I would not survive.”
Gynaecologist Dr Shershah Syed, who is also associated with the Pakistan Medical Association, stressed the need to educate and train undergraduate doctors. “Every doctor should know about all types of cancers,” he said.
Radiotherapist at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Dr Naeem Abbasi, lamented that overall 99 per cent of the patients suffer because of doctors’ negligence.
Cervical cancer facts
A gynaecologist and teacher at the JPMC’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Dr Shereen Bhutta, said that Pakistan ranks at two in cervical cancer. Around 80 per cent of cancer patients are in developing countries. She further said that 60 per cent of the women who develop cervical cancer die from it. Now even younger women are dying from it, which is more disturbing. “It is just too much if a woman is dying from a preventable disease,” she added.
Prevention
A gynaecologist at JPMC, Dr Haleema Yasmin, highlighted the important of Pap smears screening. She said it is less effective in older women when they are approaching menopause, however it can be successfully performed on women aged between 20 and 50 years.
The general secretary of the Association of Mothers and Newborns (Aman), Dr Azra Ahsan, said in Pakistan people only visit doctors when they have a disease. “If we talk about prevention of any disease to the patients, they don’t take interest,” she said.
HPV vaccination for prevention
Most deaths occur because women come to us when their cancer is already in the third or fourth stage, said a gynaecologist at JPMC, Dr Sadiah Ahsan Pal. She talked about the importance of vaccination.
“Vaccination is safe and a woman should be vaccinated before marriage,” she said. “Women are more likely to develop [the] virus between the ages of 35 and 60 years. Thus, vaccination will help them prevent cervical cancer.”
A prominent journalist, Khursheed Hyder, who survived ovarian cancer, said it is rightly said that prevention is better than cure. Sharing her ordeal, she said, “I admit I didn’t care much about my bloating stomach and weight gain as I was incredibly busy with work. I couldn’t even think for a second I could be diagnosed with cancer and that too at third degree.”
Oncologist Dr Manzoor Zaidi, gynaecologists Dr Saddiqua Jaffery, Dr Razia Korejo, Dr Ayesha Khan and Dr Alia Begum among others, chef Zubeida Tariq, singer Shahzad Roy and medical students attended the seminar.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2016.
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