Offering at-home tests is the best way to get people screened, research from Massey University shows. It found Māori were nearly 10 times more likely to take a self-test rather than have a smear, Pasifika six times and Asian participants five times more likely.
JASON DORDAY/Stuff
I was reassured by the message it’s hard to get the test wrong. The comfort of the office sick bay will do for me. I jam a chair up against the door when I realise it doesn’t lock. I chat to Dr Collette Bromhead, co-author of the Massey study, before I get down to unwrapping the sterile packaging.
Abigail Dougherty
Pukekohe mum Haley Brock was diagnosed with cervical cancer after going back to her doctor four times and is urging for the new HPV self-test to be funded.
She always had her routine smears, but Haley Brock had to go back to the doctor four times before the cervical cancer that almost took her womb was detected. The 31-year-old narrowly avoided a hysterectomy, but the radiation treatments have forced her into medical menopause. The mum-of-two can never have any more babies. “It’s not even possible for me to have another child,” she says. “I would have liked to make that decision myself.”
+Undoctored
Media release from Auckland and Waitematā DHBs, and Massey University
Thursday 22 April 2021, 08:57 AM
2 minutes to Read
Professor John Potter, Massey University
Self-testing for cervical cancer could reduce cervical screening inequities for Māori, Pacific and Asian women, according to new research led by Massey University in partnership with Waitematā District Health Board and Auckland District Health Board.
Cervical cancer is caused by the HPV (human papillomavirus). HPV can be picked up by a test (which, crucially, can also be a self-test) using a cotton swab. It is less invasive than the current test used in the National Cervical Screening Programme.
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