Cancer is one of the most common diseases which has claimed many lives. It is a disease caused by uncontrolled cell growth and distribution to various body parts. Cancer cells are formed from normal body cells by a gene mutation. There are several ways these genes can be constructed; they could be inherited by the offspring from the parents, created when one gets exposed to things such as ultraviolet radiation and may develop as one grows older. They may also develop as a result of heavy intake of alcohol and smoking cigarettes; thus, lifestyle may also lead to the formation of the cancer mutant genes. Cancer treatment is also not an easy process. It involves complex processes if the cell tumour has grown to the third or fourth stage. I will discuss the relationship between sexuality, gender, and health in this work.
Many people in society lack the knowledge of what courses cancer. They have, therefore, related the disease to some cultural beliefs and mythical tales to explain the course of cancer. Some people believe it develops due to ancestral curses, while others argue it is a disease for rich and wicked people. All these misconceptions have made it difficult for the governments under the ministry of health and other health organizations such as the world health organization to sensitize the population on different prevention measures and treatment procedures. Rose, a thirty-seven-year-old, a mother of five and a cancer survivor, narrates the experience of battling cancer. She counts herself a champion for fighting and finally healing from her cervical cancer, which has claimed the lives of many women. Therefore, she decided to dedicate her time teaching the public about cervical cancer and providing psychological support to cancer patients.
She noticed something was not right in June 2009 when she could experience severe abdominal pain and pre-menstrual cramping (Rose, T., 2021) but dismissed it as the challenges that come along as one gets older. After some time, the pain became so severe and frequent that she could decide to visit the hospital, where the doctor told her that she had a urinary tract infection. This was the first time she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection; therefore, she thought it was necessary to improve her hygiene (Rose, T., 2021). However, this still made no significant difference as she developed more and more complications. She was diagnosed with urinary tract infections several times over the following months. At this point, she realized that she could be suffering from something more serious than she initially imagined.
Over her lifetime, since she was twelve, Rose took part in athletics, and she always won most of her races. In October of the same year, she participated in a local five-kilometre run. She could hardly finish the race despite putting in more than sixty miles of training. Her sports medical doctor recommended some rest and physical therapy, but still, none of that worked out. She also narrates the night she was having intercourse with her husband when she suddenly experienced an excruciating pain followed by a bloodstream. She was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent pelvic examination and was attended to by a gynaecologist. When her friends heard of her situation, some began to relate her illness to sexually transmitted infections and distanced themselves from her.
Being a mother, she found it challenging to balance her motherly role and her health. Rose was determined to live even after being diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer. She said he could not allow herself to die and leave her kids and caring husband. Her situation was worse than even the doctors said she might only be alive for a few months, five months. Cancer had destroyed her urinary bladder, virginal walls and a significant portion of her large intestine. Fortunately, discovered that the cancer cells had not reached the lymph nodes. She had a tube inserted into her right kidney as it was necessary if she was to undergo chemotherapy (Rose, T., 2021). She also narrated her many traumatizing experiences during the chemotherapy session; the pain was unbearable. She lost much of her body weight and hair. Her last-born son used to ask her when she was going to die, as the other kids he interacted with at school said to him that their mummy would die soon.
After many unsuccessful attempts to get rid of the cancer cells, her doctor recommended that the affected parts of her body be removed. Due to her strong will to live, Rose gave in to being operated on without a second thought if that could be the only way to get her live (Rose, T., 2021). The procedure, which took about sixteen and a half hours, was pronounced successful, and after some few months, the doctors noted that the cancer cells were gone and she was recovering well. Rose decided to work with a non-governmental organization to teach women about cervical cancer and share her personal experience with the disease.
From Rose’s narration, she also stated that she lost her sexuality after she was diagnosed with the killer’s disease. Cervical cancer affects only women; however, people had different diverging opinions on the course of Rose’s illness. Some said it was due to her immoral behaviours, and others related to hygiene, saying that it’s because the female gender fails to properly clean up their reproductive parts of the body that makes them vulnerable to such diseases (McDougall, L.J., 2013). Such misconceptions have, over time, been a barrier in the fight against cancer. They instil fear in people of how society will look at them in case they come into contact with the disease; thus, many people, especially women, have failed to undergo cancer screening. There is, therefore, still much to be done in educating the population about cancer; this is one thing Rose dedicated her life after cancer to do.
Several other factors may make women vulnerable to cervical cancer. Some of these include; social-cultural practices like exposing young girls to early marriage and polygamy. Additionally, poverty and lack of knowledge or ignorance may as well contribute to the increasing number of people living with cervical cancer. Cervical cancer must provide psychological support (Tadesse, S.K., 2015). Stress and depression have resulted in more deaths as patients lack emotional support from those close to them. In the case of Rose, her friends distanced themselves from her at the time when she needed them the most. However, she praised her husband for the courage he took and was always by her side throughout her medication journey. There have been cases of cancer patients being neglected by their closest family members, including spouses. This is sometimes because the patients may lose their sexuality, thus, fail to satisfy their partner’s sexual needs.
World health organization reports that sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions with the highest mortality rates in the world. It has also been established that the leading course of the disease in these regions is the human papillomavirus (HPV) (Amaro‐Filho, S.M.,2020). The virus is easily transmitted from one person to another through the genitals or direct skin contact. Primarily the virus is developed as a result of people striving to satisfy their endless sexual needs; therefore, sexual responsibility would be the best way to prevent the spread of the virus, which may lead to cervical cancer (Tadesse, S.K., 2015). Sometimes the cultural beliefs that the people have refused to let go of lead women to such problems. Some communities view women as sexual tools to be exploited (Davies, S.G., 2014), thus promoting polygamy, which has been the course of the transmission of various diseases, including the deadly HIV/AIDS.
In her work as a health awareness personnel, Rose visits different places, especially where she could find more women to talk to about cancer. She often visits areas where the sex workers operate, not to criticize the kind of business they do but to create awareness about the existence of cervical cancer. She is a living testimony (Katsulis, Y.,2010). The human female genitals are vulnerable to many infections if not well taken care of appropriately. She also loves to listen to the stories that the sex workers share with her about their daily challenges at work. They meet different people from across the world. Some of these men are very rude, call them names like whores, and even beat them up when they refuse to have an unprotected intimate (Katsulis, Y.,2010). It is vital that even in their work, they take the necessary precautions to protect them against various sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS (Van Den Borne, F., 2007), and cervical cancer-causing human papillomavirus
Rose also discovered that the most common course of cervical cancer is poverty. In her interactions with different women, the question that she was mostly asked was about the economic challenges. Some women said they could not afford to pay for the screening services and treatment expenses if they were diagnosed with cancer. Many governments are now availing of cancer screening services free of charge. Poverty has made women involved in risky activities that would expose them to many dangers. Other patients also end up losing their lives as they are not in a position to cater for the medication expenses.
However, cultural beliefs, religion, and poverty have been the barriers to the fight to stop the spread of cervical cancer. In Rose’s narrative, she explains how traumatizing the experience with cervical cancer was and whether it was not for her strong will to live; perhaps she could have lost to cancer. It is not only the health complications that make cervical cancer traumatized but also the psychological effects. As mentioned in her narration, Rose was worried from the start when she could not figure out what exactly the problem was (Rose, T., 2021). She assumed that perhaps it was all complications that accompany ageing.
In summary, cervical cancer is among women’s top causes of death globally. It requires much more attention than the already provided to help create awareness about this killer disease in women. It also comes with many challenges ranging from social, economic, and health and psychological effects (Tadesse, S.K., 2015). For instance, Rose narrates how she lost her friends during her medication period. In the fight, most cervical cancer patients also lose their sexuality. In a society where women have always been viewed as a sexual tools, cervical cancer patients tend to face rejection even after they manage to heal from the disease and will be rendered useless. The last surgery, Rose’s last hope to live, left her without some parts of her body. The doctors removed her virginal walls, bladder and a significant portion of her colon during the surgical operation by the doctors (Rose, T., 2021). Again, all these procedures are costly, making it impossible for an ordinary woman citizen to pay for them. This narrative points out the relationship between gender, sexuality and health (Nagel, J., 2006). Cervical cancer is a disease for the women gender, which may result in the loss of one’s sexuality and the many health challenges accompanying it.
References
Nagel, J., 2006. Ethnicity, sexuality, and globalization. Theory, culture & society, 23(2-3), pp.545-547.
Katsulis, Y., Lopez, V., Durfee, A. and Robillard, A., 2010. Female sex workers and the social context of workplace violence in Tijuana, Mexico. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 24(3), pp.344-362.
Van Den Borne, F., 2007. I am using mystery clients to assess condom negotiation in Malawi: some ethical concerns. Studies in Family Planning, 38(4), pp.322-330.
Rose, T., 2021. Rose’s cancer survivor story. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/stories/rose.htm [Accessed September 26, 2022].
Tadesse, S.K., 2015. Socio-economic and cultural vulnerabilities to cervical cancer and challenges faced by patients attending care at Tikur Anbessa Hospital: a cross-sectional and qualitative study. BMC women’s health, 15(1), pp.1-12.
McDougall, L.J., 2013. Towards a clean slit: how medicine and notions of normality shape female genital aesthetics. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 15(7), pp.774-787.
Davies, S.G., 2014. Surveilling sexuality in Indonesia. In sex and sexualities in contemporary Indonesia (pp. 47-68). Routledge
Amaro‐Filho, S.M., Gradissimo, A., Usyk, M., Moreira, F.C., de Almeida, L.M., Moreira, M.A. and Burk, R.D., 2020. HPV73, a nonvaccine type, causes cervical cancer. International journal of cancer, 146(3), pp.731-738.
write