South-Asian UK women hide cancer because of stigma

August 14, 2017

One woman only sought treatment when her breast became ‘rotten’
Another said people would believe God was punishing her for living a ‘bad life’
She kept chemotherapy a secret which made her feel ‘extremely lonely’
Some women reject treatment because losing their hair would reveal diagnosis
The attitudes contribute to a significantly reduced survival rate for breast cancer

Claudia Tanner For Mailonline

Published:
06:03 EDT, 8 August 2017

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Updated:
06:40 EDT, 8 August 2017

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A number of South-Asian women in the UK are hiding their cancer diagnosis because of the social ‘stigma’.

Some see having the disease as a punishment from God or believe by having a smear test they are ‘no longer pure’.

In one case, a woman only sought treatment when her breast became ‘rotten’ and later died because the cancer had spread, reports the BBC.

And while historically, South Asian women had a very low risk of breast cancer compared with white women, the attitudes are now fuelling a fall in survival rates.

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‘I had some very dark days’

Pravina Patel found a lump in her breast when she was 36, she told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme.

Growing up in a strict Indian community where even talking about the disease was considered shameful, she hid her diagnosis from family and friends.

‘I just thought if people hear the fact that I’ve got cancer, they’re going to think it’s a death sentence,’ she said.

She said people would judge her and believe she had lived a ‘bad life’ and that God was punishing her for it.

As a result, she chose to suffer in secret through her chemotherapy treatment for fear of her family’s reaction, which she said made her feel ‘extremely lonely’.

Pravina Patel hid her cancer diagnosis from family and friends out of fear they would judge

‘I had some very dark days,’ she explained.

Ms Patel revealed that in her experience, there is a reluctance for women to go for a smear test because they fear they will be considered ‘no longer pure’.

She has now in remission after finishing her chemotherapy.

During her treatment, she got divorced from her husband – something she says was partly because of cultural expectations about how a wife should be.

Reduced survival rates

Some South Asian women in the UK see having cancer as shameful (file photo)

Pooja Saini, from CLAHRC North-West Coast, a research arm of the NHS that examines health inequalities, said she discovered some women do not have treatment because losing their hair would reveal their diagnosis.

She explained some ‘feared it might affect their children because no-one would want to marry them’.

The BBC points out that it is difficult to say how widespread the issue is, because little information has been collected on ethnicity and mortality.

But research from Bridgewater NHS in 2014 found Asian women between 15 and 64 years old had a significantly reduced survival rate for breast cancer.

Ms Saini said the influence of men in the family and elders in the wider community may be adding to the problem.

‘If they didn’t think women should go for screening, then they didn’t go,’ she said.

The Victoria Derbyshire programme airs on weekdays between 9am and 11am on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.

BREAST CANCER RATES RISING AMONG SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN

Historically, South Asian women were considered to be at a very low risk of breast cancer compared with white women.

Back in 2003, a study by Cancer Research UK showed that those from this ethnic group living in England were more likely to survive breast cancer than other women.

Their analysis showed the 10-year survival rates for women diagnosed with breast cancer were 73 per cent for South Asian women and 65 per cent for non-South Asians.

Doctors put this down to a combination of lifestyle factors common to the Asian community, including a tendency to have large families at a young age and to breastfeed for long periods.

But in 2011, a study conducted by Dr Anne Stotter, consultant breast surgeon at Glenfield hospital, Leicester, found that South Asian women can no longer be considered at a reduced risk.

It estimated that the number of Asian women being diagnosed with breast cancer has more than doubled since 1998, from 60 to 130 women per 100,000 Asian women every year.

Experts say breast awareness and encouraging screening among this ethnic group remains a challenge.