YOUNG women across Melton are putting their lives at risk according to a Women’s Health West report.
A snapshot of women’s health across the municipality has revealed women aged 20 to 24 years are ignoring the advice of health professionals by avoiding regular pap screening.
The report, released earlier this month, showed the participation rate for pap screening of women in this age group was an alarming 36.2 per cent.
Women’s Health West health promotion worker Anna Vu said the low rate could be due to a number of factors including cultural norms and limited communication with women in this age group around the importance of preventative health actions like pap screening.
“There are also women who, because of their experiences in life face barriers to pap-screening,” Ms Vu said.
“This can include women who have experienced sexual violence, pap-screening can be re-traumatising, women with a disability and women in and coming out of prison.”
According to Papscreen Victoria, pap tests prevent nine out of 10 cervical cancers, and most of the women diagnosed with cervical cancer have not had a pap test.
Ms Vu said health care providers and the wider community had to look beyond trying to influence the behaviours of individual women and instead try to make the settings in which women are living their lives conducive to them making a decision to have a pap test.
Djerriwarrh Health Services chief executive Bruce Marshall said he was very “concerned” about the low rate of women undertaking pap tests.
“A regular pap smear every two years can help detect up to 90 of the most common types of cervical cancer. All women over 18 years of age should have a pap smear every two years, even if they no longer have sex,” Mr Marshall said.
The report also revealed there were 284 notifications of Chlamydia in Melton in 2011 – an increase of 59.5 per cent over the last three years.
Other statistics showed the proportion of young women in Melton who are using contraception to avoid pregnancy is 76.6 per cent, lower than the state level of 78.9 per cent.
