Women are encouraged to regularly check their breasts for lumps or changes, but Britons are not in the habit of self-examining their vulvas, new research suggests. Only 4 per cent of women regularly check down there for signs of cancer compared to 37 per cent who regularly check their breasts, according to a survey by gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal. The report also revealed 41 per cent of women say they’ve never heard of vulval cancer, of which there are over 1,400 new cases of each year in the UK – around four a day.
Jane Joy was one of them, until she was given the news she had it just over a year ago. “Despite being a midwife and seeing ladies’ bits every day, I didn’t realise you could get vulval cancer,” she told i . “People have told me that they’d never heard of the vulva.
We’re just not well educated about this.” The findings from The Eve Appeal also show that 79 per cent of women had never checked their vulva and among those who have heard of the disease before, almost half (48 per cent) have never self examined for it. Jane was fairly young to get vulval cancer – just 53.
It is most common after the age of 60, but it can occur at any age and is on the rise in younger people. Since the early 90s, incidences in 25 to 49 year-olds have risen 67 per cent, and in 50 to 59 year-olds by 101 per cent. This is probably in part because of the rising incidence of HPV infection .
Smoking is also a risk factor. ‘The GP said I was too young a.