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CLUW Urges Older Women to Ask About Cervical Cancer Screening, New Test |
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The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), which has its own cervical cancer awareness program, Cervical Cancer Prevention Works, is joining the National Council of Women’s Organizations’ (NCWO’s) new campaign to spread the word to older women that they may benefit from the same advanced cervical cancer screening technologies as younger women.
This year, women aged 65 and older will account for 20 percent of the new cervical cancer cases and they are 35 percent more likely to die of the disease than younger women, according to the National Cancer Institute. Worldwide, more than 500,000 women are diagnosed each year with the disease and more than 230,000 die from it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved a new test to detect the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, as well as a vaccine against HPV. The NCWO has launched an online campaign—Note to Older Women: Ask About Cervical Cancer Screening, Ask About HPV Testing—to encourage all women to tell the older women in their lives to ask their health care provider about their need for cervical cancer screening and about HPV testing to determine their cervical cancer risk.
Carolyn Jacobson, director of CLUW’s Cervical Cancer Prevention Works, says cervical cancer is a disease that can be prevented with proper preventive care. She points out that this year alone, 11,070 women will be diagnosed in the United States with cervical cancer and 3,870 will die of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
You can learn more about older women and cervical cancer prevention by visiting the Note to Older Women: Ask About Cervical Cancer Screening, Ask About HPV Testing campaign website here. You also can send a postcard here to the older women in your lives and to your friends and colleagues so they can share it with the women they know. Or you can post the Note to Older Women campaign’s button on your Facebook or other personal webpage so others can learn about the campaign and get involved.
To educate and empower union women to fight cervical cancer, Jacobson says, CLUW is urging all unions to negotiate contracts that:
- Cover all FDA-approved HPV testing, including its use in conjunction with a Pap test, as part of routine screening for women aged 30 and older, as recommended by leading medical organizations.
- Cover the HPV vaccine for girls and women aged 9-26.
- Cover annual office visits with an obstetrician or gynecologist for counseling on contraception, sexually transmitted infections, breast and other cancer screening, and, as deemed appropriate by the clinician, cervical cancer screening.
- Protect patient confidentiality.
Away from the bargaining table, unions also can promote union women’s health by:
- Putting on a health fair or holding a health seminar.
- Including a health section as part of an education program/monthly meeting.
- Inviting speakers to talk on health at monthly meetings.
- Sponsoring a wellness walk.
- Linking your website to sites such as CLUW Health Links, CLUW’s Cervical Cancer Prevention Works, My Health Test Reminder and the National Women’s Health Information Center.
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