12 - “Dying Inside”: Obstacles to Treatment – and the Catastrophic Consequences

Summary

It can be painful to witness the toll of cervical cancer on women offered next-to-no treatment options. Persons with cervixes who acquire the disease in places like Africa or Southeast Asia often experience a brutal life trajectory. In the absence of highly trained professionals, sophisticated medical facilities, and expensive surgical or radiation equipment, most cervical cancer patients in lower-income countries are sent home to die. These deaths can be protracted and lonely, with little access to palliative care. What’s more, the stigma of the disease – associated with “dirty” female reproductive organs and the smell of advanced cancer – can lead to social banishment in a sufferer’s final days. In higher-income countries, greater availability of treatment is still no guarantee of equity. Low-income patients in the United States are often cut off from insurance once cancer goes into remission, excluding them from critical follow-up. Pockets of inequity, the rural–urban divide, and inconsistent access to care mean women from affluent countries die inexcusably from a preventable cancer. The inhumane circumstances cervical cancer sufferers face worldwide remind us of this mission’s urgency.