Why we need to talk about cancer care on International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day. It is both a celebration of all the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and a time to focus on women’s rights. This year’s theme, #BalanceforBetter, underlines this.

Macmillan prioritises policy that tackles the health inequalities that exist for those living with and affected by cancer.

We work to ensure that those receiving physical, emotional, and social support, are receiving support equally.

We want to make sure that who you are or where you come from never determines your outcomes, quality of life or experience of care after the shock of a cancer diagnosis. But too often this is the case.

How are women affected by inequalities in cancer care?

• In a Cancer Patient Experience Survey (2011), women were 60% more likely than men not to be told about support groups. Women had a 50% increased risk of not finding someone to discuss their worries and fears; and a 50% increased risk of not having enough privacy when discussing their condition or their treatment. In fact, of the 70 questions asked, women had a worse experience in 49 of them, and only better experiences on two.[i]

• Cancer carers in the UK are mostly female (68%). Women are more likely than men to experience negative physical impacts of providing cancer care, such as tiredness and exhaustion.[ii]

• A 2012 survey found that 41% of lesbian and bisexual women had been told that they did not need a cervical cancer screening. There are cases where transgender people are not invited to screenings at all.[iii]

• Four in five people are affected financially by a cancer diagnosis. The financial impact of cancer is worse for those who live in the most deprived areas of the UK. The financial costs are starker for women from BAME communities because there tend to be higher levels of poverty among these groups. For example, over half of people in the Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic groups lived in the most deprived 20% of areas in England in 2011. [iv]

It is evident that despite over 300,000 people being diagnosed with cancer every year, who someone is can determine what happens next.

So, this International Women’s Day, we see that we need a nuanced approach to health inequalities to ensure that all women can get the help, care and support that is right for them.

#BalanceforBetter for people living with cancer could mean an approach to inequalities that takes outcomes and experiences into account to tackle the full range of known inequalities.

We will continue to work with the Government, national bodies and the wider health community to tackle known inequalities throughout cancer care.

Citations

[i] Saunders et al. 2014. Inequalities in reported cancer patient experience by socio-demographic characteristic and cancer site: evidence from respondents to the English Cancer Patient Experience Survey https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4309492/

[ii] Miller, Cresida et al. 2016. Cancer Carers in the UK. https://www.macmillan.org.uk/_images/cancer-carers-in-the-uk_tcm9-298126.pdf

[iii] Macmillan. 2012. The Emerging Picture: LGBT people with cancer.  https://www.macmillan.org.uk/_images/LGBT-People-with-Cancer_tcm9-282785.pdf page 45

[iv] Macmillan. The Rich Picture: People with cancer from BME groups https://www.macmillan.org.uk/_images/BME-groups_tcm9-282778.pdf