Deadly Ignorance - or Distrust of the Medical Profession (aka. Survival Instinct)

Here's a survey that has left the media wondering whether "women are crazy and lacking common sense" - or as I see it; simply letting the medical system that's treated us as second class citizens for far too long know we no longer want to accept their tactics.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has found that one in five women don't want to know if they have cancer.

"Rather than seek early detection and possible cure, these women would prefer to remain in the dark," according to a New York Post report on the study (October 15, 2007).
The study, which surveyed 1,664 women online between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3, also found that 63 percent of us women think that if we have no family history of cancer we are unlikely to develop the disease. Proof positive to the study's authors that we are lacking common sense.

Eighteen percent think regular mammograms and Pap smears are unnecessary, and 7 percent say they're "a waste of time."

It's no surprise to me that an ever increasing number of women would rather not have tests to find out if they have cancer because they don't trust the tests, the interpretation and the treatments. Who can blame them, given the fear, intimidation, misinformation and brutal manipulation they are subjected to by our present healthcare system? Not to mention the brazen advertising directed at scaring women into submission (drugs, drug companies, treatments, hospitals, centers of excellence, etc.).

And how about the ever increasing numbers of unnecessary mastectomies that are inflicted on unsuspecting women - sometimes as a "precaution" on those who don't even have the disease?

The treatment of cancer is BIG business - for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, physicians and for the manufacturers of surgical and radiographic equipment and other devices. And how can anyone forget the TV networks, newspapers and magazines cashing in on all the advertising from those who make money off our fears?

When did you last hear or see an ad telling women how to avoid getting cancer?
How many ads tell you that birth control pills may be causing you breast cancer? Why are women still being prescribed synthetic hormones 40 years after it was first discovered they cause cancer?

Apparently it is better to let women get sick, so the system can make a buck from keeping the sick and scared and perpetually treating them.

Women who get cancer are left to fend for themselves - adrift in a sea of sales pitches, dubious tests, dangerous drugs, bombardment by threats from results of studies funded by drug companies and hospitals competing with each other for market share.

No wonder we'd rather not know we have it. It's not that we don't want to know about it blindly and without common sense. We would rather not know about it from people we don't trust, from a system flawed with the primary goal of making money, not taking care of us.

Under the present circumstances, we're better off living our lives without fear or intimidation and learning how best to prevent it even if that means staying away from the medical system!

Comments

[DrErika]

Dear Jim:

Thank you for this very important data.

I will make sure it gets out as far as possible.

Best

DrErika

[Jim]

Dr Erika,
As for distrust a recent study from JAMA Oct. 18 2007

"About 60% of department heads at medical schools and teaching hospitals in the U.S. have personal financial relationships with pharmaceutical or medical device companies"
Published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association,

[DrErika]

Dear Karen:

Thank you for the excellent and on-point comments. We will post them on the website! There are many who feel like you do so I am encouraged and hopeful the system will change. We are certainly changing for the better.

All the best

DrErika

[DrErika]

Dear Karen:

Thank you for the excellent and on-point comments. We will post them on the website! There are many who feel like you do so I am encouraged and hopeful the system will change. We are certainly changing for the better.

All the best

DrErika

[Karen]

I am one of those women who no longer trust MDs to look out for my best physical interests, since I believe the media and pharmaceutical companies have coopted their professional loyalties and ethics. I do consult complimentary care providers and go to my GP for simple issues, for example, broken bones or skin cancer exams.

On the other hand, the allopathic approach to preventive medicine I sum up as "Better living through chemicals". Sound familiar? This approach is as bankrupt for medicine as it was for pest control in the 1960's and we are all set to pay dearly for their blind-sidedness. I hope someday the allopaths wake up and start treating women as whole people, with unique nutritional, hormonal and physical issues and needs. In addition, I sincerely hope that breast cancer detection and treatment emerges from the dark ages of painful and injurious mammograms into more non-invasive strategies like the more sophisticated imaging technology incorporated into ultrasound based breast cancer detection systems.