What to know
- Women’s College Hospital hosted its fifth annual cervical cancer screening event for Black women, welcoming a record 72 participants this year.
- The event provided 49 cervical cancer screenings, 44 breast cancer screenings, along with consultations, breast ultrasounds and clinical breast exams.
- Organizers say the initiative addresses barriers that disproportionately affect Black women, including racism in healthcare, limited access to primary care, transportation, childcare and language challenges.
- While the event is designed to create a culturally safe space for Black women, hospital officials say no one is turned away, emphasizing that the goal is to improve access for communities that have historically faced exclusion from healthcare.
For the fifth year running, a local hospital has hosted an event dedicated to cancer screening for Black women.
Women accessing healthcare in Canada face significant disparities, due to everything from a lack of research into the conditions that most affect us to a lack of funding. Women’s Health Collective Canada (WHCC) is a coalition of women’s health and hospital foundations. They report that while the average woman in Canada lives longer than the average man, she will spend 24 per cent more of her life in poor health. Additionally, WHCC says that about 60 per cent of people with chronic pain are women, yet conditions that primarily affect women, such as endometriosis and adenomyosis, remain significantly under-researched, while Statistics Canada says that women are more likely to report unmet health-care needs than men.
These issues are further compounded by intersecting identities, such as being Queer or racialized. For instance, nearly half of Black women in Canada report delaying or avoiding health care because they fear experiencing racism or being dismissed by health-care providers, according to a national survey by the Black Women’s Institute for Health. Meanwhile, Canada’s Public Health Agency recognizes anti-Black racism as a determinant of health, noting it contributes to poorer health outcomes through barriers in health care, education, employment and housing.
Cervical Cancer Screening Event for Black Women
Women’s College Hospital (WCH), a world-renowned healthcare centre in Toronto, aims to address these disparities through research, events and specialized programming. One program, the annual Cervical Cancer Screening Event for Black Women, aims to both increase testing and ensure Black women feel welcome, supported and seen by healthcare providers.
The annual event combines cancer screening, health education and community support in a culturally responsive environment designed specifically for Black women. Officials tell Now Toronto that this year’s event welcomed 72 women, making it the largest screening event in the program’s five-year history.
Of participants, 49 received cervical cancer screening, 44 were screened for breast cancer, five received cervical screening consultations or additional testing, and three received breast ultrasounds and clinical breast exams.
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“Well, for some women, we do see lower uptake of breast and cervical cancer screening.
“We wanted to create a space where women would feel comfortable coming into the healthcare system to have these really important tests done, and a space where they would feel that their concerns would be heard,” explained Dr. Aisha Lofters, the medical director for WCH’s Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers.
“We really wanted to create a space where not only could women have that screening done, but also that the benefits could be longer lasting and help to kind of rebuild trust for those who’ve lost trust within the healthcare system.”
She explained that the event was created to help address barriers that can prevent Black women from accessing regular cancer screening, including navigating the health-care system, limited primary care, a lack of culturally relevant services, and barriers to transportation, language, and childcare.
The event aims to overcome these barriers by creating a comfortable and culturally informed environment for Black women to feel comfortable seeking care, featuring support like childcare, transportation, and translation services.
“For some [Black] women, we do see lower uptake of breast and cervical cancer screening. We do see evidence of breast cancer occurring at younger ages and being more aggressive,” she explained, adding that this was also part of the motivation for making sure Black women especially are aware of the benefits of screening.
She also added that while the annual affair is designed for Black women, they never turn anyone away from accessing the screening event.
“It’s not about excluding others; it’s about bringing in people who already have been excluded,” she shared. “Every year there are some women who are not Black who show up to the event, and they are welcomed. They get the same food and good care that everybody else gets because our assumption is, if you have signed up for this event, it’s for a particular reason.”
