NORFOLK, Va. — September is Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month, and the Hampton Roads-based group Project Nana is spreading awareness about the risks post-menopausal women face with the “Walk to End Breast and Gynecologic Cancers”.
“Our message is that seasoned women's health matters,” said Vanessa Hill, who created Project Nana after losing her 87-year-old grandmother to uterine cancer. “[At this weekend’s walk] we're going to have music. We're going to celebrate each age [and] each year. We want as many people to come out in honor and memory of their own seasoned women in their lives so that we can make sure we tell them they're supported.”
The walk, which marks the end of the 2023 Seasoned Women’s Health Summit, is free. Registration begins at 12 p.m. at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel. Before the walk kicks off at 1 p.m. along the Elizabeth River, Hill said seasoned women will share their “Nanalogues” about their experiences at 12:30 p.m.
“It’s more Mardi Gras than marathon,” Hill said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age of diagnosis for most gynecologic cancers is over the age of 60. For example, the average age of diagnosis is 63 for uterine and ovarian cancer; 67 for cancer of the vagina and vulva; and 50 for cervical cancer.
“Post-menopausal women unfortunately sometimes get lost in routine care because they feel […] if they’re not having children any longer, they do not have to see the gynecologist,” said Dr. Keisha Burfoot, an obstetrician-gynecologist based in Norfolk. “Sometimes it’s not clear to them from their primary care physician that they should continue to see a gynecologist in the post-menopausal years.”
Dr. Burfoot said post-menopausal women should be seen by a gynecologist or have a routine pelvic exam by their primary care physician about every two years. A lack of pelvic exams and inquiries about reproductive organs after can cause warning signs of cancer to be missed by doctors, leading to late-stage diagnoses once it’s detected.
“Uterine cancer, which is the most common gynecologic cancer, we don’t have a screening test [for it],” said Dr. Burfoot. “So when women come in, if we don’t inquire about if […] they’ve had post-menopausal bleeding, they don’t always volunteer the information.”
Dr. Burfoot said post-menopausal bleeding is usually the first sign that something is wrong in the uterine cavity.
“I will hear a lot of older women saying, 'Oh, I had a period again,'” said Dr. Burfoot. “Once you go through menopause, you should never see blood again.”
