Very excited to be facilitating a community Health Awareness Consultative process. All invited. Please RSVP if you can make it.
Supported by:
Heading down to Esperance…want to join me for a night of discussions about all things GYNae?
Kath Mazzella featured on the Rural Health’s Website
Rural Health Education Foundation’s Website interview feature
Kath is proud to be interviewed by the Rural Health Education Foundation.
This case study features the story of Kath who was diagnosed with vulval cancer after she found lumps in her vulva. Kath talks about the shock of finding cancer, and the psychosexual and psychosocial impact of her diagnosis and treatment.
Kath has now set up GAIN, the Gynaecological Awareness Information Network, to offer support to women with gynaecological health problems. She is passionate about raising awareness of the challenges for women who have a diagnosis and subsequent treatment for a gynaecological cancer.
This case study highlights the challenges for women living with gynaecological cancers and the side effects of treatment on a woman’s health and sexuality.
Listen to the podcast now.
GAIN Inc Seminars for 2013
GAIN Inc is joining forces with King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in 2013 to present a series of seminars. Check out the details on the flyer. To book, phone the number on the flier.
These seminars will be very interactive, with the opportunity to ask questions and you won’t believe what you will GAIN out of it.
New Project: Super GYN Woman’s Guide to GYN & Sexual Health
I am chasing some money to publish a GYN and Sexual Health Awareness book that I can put into anyone’s hands and they can become more aware of the risks, symptoms and stories of women who have lived with GYN conditions.
If you know someone who knows someone who is looking for an opportunity to invest into the future of women and the community (because GYN and Sexual Health has a rippled effect on both men and women in the community), please ask them to contact Hayley Solich, my management agent.
The booklet will be made available through my website and I will be taking them around the globe with me to conferences and events. It’s a great opportunity for a sponsor to have their brand displayed.
The feel of the book is going to be easy to read, lots of funky colours and images, with tips on how to support someone with a particular condition, thought provoking questions, interesting facts and figures, awareness promotion about communication, interacting with medical practitioners and the like. It’s purpose is to break down the stigmas associated with GYN and Sexual Health and to pave the way for a more open communication and provide support options to the community.
I’d also like to include useful references, so if you have read a book that was particularly good or know an organisation that is doing great work, please pop me a comment below with the details.
Much appreciated.
Kath
Outraged by SMH article – Designer Vagina’s
I have written to the SMH and am hoping that you will join me in expressing your outrage at a doctor dumbing down their explanation instead of using the right terminology for the vulva and the trend for our young women to be ordering ‘designer vaginas’.
Here is my response to this article, http://www.smh.com.au/national/rise-in-women-seeking-designer-vagina-20121120-29o3h.html#ixzz2D5xpBb4
Dear Editor
I refer to the article, ‘Rise in Women Seeking Designer Vagina’, where Dr Sonia Grover said young girls were concerned with looking different and often requested labiaplasties, a procedure to change the size and shape of the external coverings of the vagina.
Firstly, let me say that it is a sad sign of the times that our young women would want to go under the knife voluntarily and one has to ask the question, ‘Why?’ What is it in our society that has our young women concerned about the attractiveness of their genitalia? Is it that we do not have enough education about all aspects of our body and that they do not realise that every woman’s sexual anatomy is going to be different looking? Is it that there is an over-emphasis on sex in our communities that is causing an abnormal concentration of energies on perfecting the body for sex? Or is it that they have seen too many pictures that have been altered by photographic technologies, so that they are comparing themselves to an unrealistic model? I am reasonably confident to say that they have not all been lining up to show one another what their vulva looks like so they can know that they are all different!
I had major life-saving surgery due to vulval cancer 17 years ago involving the removal and remodelling of my vulva and the pain and suffering I have endured during and after surgery still haunts me. The thought that our young women would actively choose this procedure terrifies me because I know the emotional scars that accompany the physical ones.
I was recently awarded the WA Senior of the Year for my GYN and Sexual Health Awareness work, however, the one issue that I really feel I have failed to get a satisfactory outcome for is the attitude of educators and doctors/GYNs that seem too afraid to call a vulva what it really is. Schools continue to incorrectly label it the vagina. To describe it as the ‘external coverings of the vagina’ by someone who knows the difference is to misinform those very young women who are seeking surgery. To me it is the same as describing the penis as the external coverings of the testicle.
Dr Sonia, I implore you to call it a vulva so we are all clear what part of the anatomy it really is and so that when it is altered for life, these young women will know what they have lost.
I agree with Dr Sonia that, “These requests come from a lack of understanding of what is considered normal…” Surely, we can start to normalise the use of the word vulva and open the conversation with our young people so they can know that they also are normal and can appreciate their uniqueness instead of desiring to conform to an unrealistic image of what is normal.
Kathleen Mazzella OAM
Leading World Expert on Women’s Sexual and GYN Health Experiences
Join with me in insisting that they get it right, break down the barriers and stigmas associated with the use of the word ‘vulva’ and start to educate our young women that vulvas come in all shapes and sizes and what you’ve got should be treasured and valued just the way it is. Unless we speak out ladies, we will continue to be kept in the dark on these issues.
Kath Mazzella OAM Awarded WA Senior of the Year 2012 Award
I am so thrilled to have been awarded the WA Senior of the Year 2012 award today. Wow, what an honour. I was so excited to be able to get GYN and Sexual Health Awareness on the board with the broader community. I’m hoping that those gathered will help me to pull it all together.
Here are some pics from the event…
Congratulations Kath Mazzella OAM – named WA Senior of the Year 2012!
Founder of the International GYN Awareness Day celebrations, Kath has received the WA Senior of the Year 2012 Award for her work in GYN Awareness promotion. In accepting the award, Kath used the opportunity to promote the International GYN Awareness Day and to call on those present to get behind the event and support better GYN and Sexual Health Awareness, especially for older people.
