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.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS