Why Are Black Women Less Likely To Stick With A Breast Cancer Follow-Up Treatment?

Black Women and Breast Cancer

Niasha Fray used to counsel women about sticking with their cancer treatment.  Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer and  started to experience first-hand what her counselling clients went through. 

Black women are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but are 40% more likely to die from it.  The disparity can be even higher for other cancers.

According to this article, part of the reason for this is that Black women are less likely to stick with follow-up treatment. 

If African American women -  and men - are less likely to attend follow-up appointments or stick with the treatment, there could be many reasons for this.  They could be finding it harder to pay for the treatment.  Finances are often a factor.  They may find it difficult to have to take time off from work; transport may be a problem.

Black patients tend to do better with Black doctors.  There may be other psychological, emotional or social factors involved. Read this article to find out more about this topic. 

To find out about my cancer journey, go here for my Cancer Journals. 

Please share your responses below and please share this with your networks.  Thanks.

Civil Rights, Fannie Lou Hamer, Black Women and Hysterectomy

Fannie Lou Hamer after Beating

I found this by accident on Wikipedia while looking up something else. Fannie Lou Hamer, who later became a reknowned Civil Rights leader, was given a hysterectomy at the age of 32 in order to prevent her from producing children.

If you don't know what happened to Hamer during the voter registration drives of the 1960s, what the police did to her, you really need to.  So please google her name.

Hamer had gone into hospital to have a tumour removed, and during that surgery, the hysterectomy was performed without her consent. This is just another way Black women's reproduction has been controlled by the authorities for generations.

If you have listened to my Cancer Journals, you know that I had a hysterectomy last year as a result of my diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Prior to that, when I was still of childbearing age, two different doctors at two different London hospitals try to force me to have a hysterectomy.

Hamer's surgery was performed in 1961 and she later coined the phrase “Mississippi appendectomy” because this practice was very established as a way of removing and preventing Black women's ability to reproduce. So this tactic, which was common in Mississippi in the early 1960s, was still being employed in London in the 1980s and '90s. I was never given any good reason or explanation for why I should undergo this surgery until my cancer diagnosis last year.

Experiments on Black women formed the basis of gynecology. For more about this, see: 

Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology.  

.

Click here for my Cancer Journals. And remember, Black Lives Matter. 

Go here for more Black history blog posts.   

Please leave your comments below and please share this with your networks. Thanks.

Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology

As you may know, the speculum was developed via experiments performed on enslaved Black women.

Dr. Marion Sims, who conducted many of these experiments, has been called the “father of modern gynecology” and is credited with inventing the speculum. 

Meanwhile, the enslaved Black women on whom he experimented have largely been forgotten. They were experimented on without anaesthesia and without dignity, and some of them died under his “care”. 

Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey were three such women whose names we should, we must, recall.

Just part of the history of how Black women's bodies have been treated in the name of “healthcare".   

Click here for an excellent NPR show, Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology.

See also: Black Women Sue Johnson & Johnson over Ovarian Cancer.

Please share this with your networks and please leave your comments below.  Thanks. 

Black Women With Fibroids Face Higher Risk Of Endometrial Cancer

Black women and fibroids

Click here for my Cancer Journals. 

We have known for many years that Black women are more likely than other women to have fibroids.  Up till now, fibroids have been considered to be benign tumours, although they can cause problems including heavy periods, pain and infertility.  They are commonly treated by surgery and can lead to hysterectomy.  They can also be treated using herbal medicine. 

Now, a study from Boston University has shown that Black women with a history of fibroids have a 40% increased risk of developing cancer of the womb lining (endometrium). 

Click here to read more.