Some of you may have noticed the pack of women sporting "I LOVE MY VAGINA" t-shirts displayed in 24H this week accompanying the article on Papalooza: The Smear Campaign, a unique and popular event run by street nurses to offer pap smears and STI/HIV testing to underserviced and underscreened communities (click here for locations and times).
The day after reading said article on Papalooza, I had the pleasure of listening to Doreen Littlejohn (founder of the campaign and appearing front and centre in said photo) as a guest lecturer in my UBC class. Not only was she moving and inspirational, but listening to her speak was a great lesson in the power of people. The campaign has brought dozens of women into the clinic who have never had a pap or been tested in their life. Due to the sheer volume of participants last year (most likely lured in my the games, prizes and chocolate vagina door prizes!), those who did not get in to see a practitioner were given rain checks to come back, and they did.
Included in these communities is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, as well as queer and transgender populations. I was surprised to learn that doctors do not give lesbian women routine pap smears, due to a misconception that HPV cannot be spread between women, thus leading to a potentially higher risk of cervical cancer in lesbian women who detect it too late (read more on this...). The importance of catching cervical cancers, STI's and HIV is not only the individual's concern, but affects our entire community. Making testing and education fun and accessible to these women will easily lead to better health and safer practices - the campaign in brilliant. If only we could all be rewarded with candy for spreading our hips and our lips to cold medal!
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