Cancer Increases Inequalities Between Men and Women Marta Kleber - Noticiero Vallarta
go to original February 8, 2022

According to a survey published by the Institut Curie, there are strong disparities between men and women facing cancer.

"The figures remind us: every year the number of cancers in women increases, due to the effect of smoking or lack of prevention. Precariousness, return to work, mental workload, household organization... during and after treatment, the appearance of cancer in a woman is a reinforced rupture and the social impact of the disease is heavier for them," says Professor Steven Le Gouill, director of the Institut Curie Hospital Complex.

Forty-three percent of French people believe that there are indeed inequalities between men and women in terms of mental workload and family organization. Among them, 37% think that these inequalities are detrimental to women, compared with only 6% who think that they are detrimental to men.

Difficulties in Reconciling Family and Professional Life

"More than half of French women think that women with cancer cannot find the same professional life they had before the disease, a factor that aggravates women's precarious situations," laments the Curie Institute. And to explain: "if one person in five has not returned to work one year after treatment, women have had more work stoppages and more working time arrangements than men".

According to the French, the main difficulties for a woman who has recovered from cancer, when it comes to returning to professional life, are: to suffer the gaze of others and prejudice, to regain one's place and succeeding in one's job.

More Intimate Factors Also Affect Women

Some factors are more intimate: one out of two women considers that women cannot regain the same intimate life they had before becoming ill. At issue: ltered body image, fear of seeing the disease return, social isolation or persistent pain.

"Sexuality is neither a luxury nor a taboo," insists Dr. Sylvie Dolbeault, psychiatrist and head of the psycho-oncology and social service at the Institut Curie. It is crucial to be able to evoke and legitimize these issues around sexuality and intimacy within the therapeutic process."

Fighting cancer is not only about seeing tumors disappear with the course of chemotherapy and radiation, it is also about psychological support, helping with fatigue, improving self-esteem, supporting women socially and professionally.

See the original at Noticiero Vallarta

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This article was translated from Spanish using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

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