About 90 percent of women believe the government should allocate more resources to the prevention of cancer in women, a recent survey conducted by a newly established women’s cancer society showed.
Yesterday marked the establishment of the Women’s Cancer Society of Taiwan (台灣女性癌症協會), the first such society in the country dedicated to caring for women cancer patients. During the press conference, Tseng Chi-jen (曾志仁), society chairman and chief of Chiayi Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, presented the findings of a survey on major problems caused by cancer that affect women.
A total of 910 women over 20 years of age from various parts of the country were surveyed last month.
Of them, 21.4 percent said they had a family member or friend who had been affected by breast or cervical cancer. Of those who have breast or cervical cancer, “fear of dying” was the main concern, with 36.8 percent of respondents admitting to this worry, followed by “breast ablation,” “removal of uterus” and “loss of reproductive abilities.”
“Many women worry that they won’t be able to bear children and that their husbands would abandon them,” said Tseng, who has seen this happen to many of his patients.
Tseng said that many of his patients’ husbands leave because they cannot deal with the fact that many aspects of their lives are changed dramatically by cancer.
“Women [with cervical cancer] who have had surgery may suffer from leaking urine through their vagina. When this happens, [the woman] cannot have sexual intercourse ... Recently, the average age of cervical cancer patients has become lower, so their husbands are also younger. Many young husbands have affairs or leave their wives as a result,” he said.
Citing the survey, Tseng said that 43.8 percent believed the government was not doing enough to provide medical care and funding for female cancer patients, while 83.5 percent said women patients in minority groups should have priority in terms of government funding.
One of the society’s goals is to push for integration in the areas of cancer prevention and post-cancer therapy and counseling, Tseng said. Cancer prevention measures such as pap smears, breast cancer screening and vaccines should all be combined in one facility to increase the rate of cancer prevention, he said.
Tseng said he had noticed there were no support groups for cervical cancer patients in Taiwan, so he hoped the society could provide a community of support for these women.
Tseng can be reached at 05-3621000 or at cjtseng@cjmh.org.tw.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS