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Edited on Mon Jan-14-08 06:34 PM by Mike03
The Pap Smear was first proposed in 1928 by a George Papanicolaou, but as a result of unconscionable foot-dragging by both doctors who made more money by removing uteruses and cervixes.
Other publications went so far as to say: "If women got cancer, it was their own fault."
This sort of propaganda only made it harder for women to seek help for personal health issues.
Canada adopted a Pap Smear program in 1949. Within three years cervical cancer rates dropped by a third.
The reluctance of the United States medical community to introduce the Pap Smear as an early, front line defense against cervical cancer continued for decades, while in other nations that adopted the test, cervical cancer rates were cut. Japan adopted it in 1962, Finland in 1963. Nations that did not adopt it saw cancer rates rise.
Why did it take almost forty years for the Pap Smear to become the gold standard for female care?
When I read about the delay of the Pap Smear, I had never heard about this and was just infuriated. Are there not parallels between the sanctimonious and greedy suppression of the PS and various other manipulations used against various oppressed groups in the world, such as the Right to Choose and the vaccine against HPV?
Was it Voltaire who said, "The more things change, the more they remain the same"?
This is so wrong.
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