The healthcare system has never had our backs

Irish women are some of the strongest and most remarkable people on the planet. For such a small island, we have so many phenomenal women flying the flag for our country and making history.

Whether it's Mary Robinson, Nicola Coughlan, or Emma Dabiri, Irish women have used their voices for change. The fight for change has become an integral part of who we are.

Women like Natasha O'Brien, Nikita Hand, and the late Vicky Phelan changed this country for the better.

And as remarkable as it is, why isn't the government or our health service helping us make these changes? Why is the burden falling on our shoulders? Why are we the ones leading the change as our cries continue to fall on deaf ears?

Despite the endless hurdles put in our way, Irish women continue to fight for change.

One Irish woman fighting for a vital change in our healthcare system is Siobhán Freeney.

In a recent interview with Martha Lovett Cullen, Siobhán opened up about why Ireland's healthcare system needs to take breast density more seriously.

Campaigner Siobhan had attended her routine breast scan as part of the BreastCheck programme in June 2015.

Her mammogram came back clear, much to her relief. What she didn’t expect was to be diagnosed with stage 3 invasive lobular breast cancer just six months later.

Siobhán has been tirelessly fighting for Ireland to notify women of their category of breast density upon receiving their first mammogram. Those who have dense breasts should be called back for an additional screening.

She shared why this is such an important step and one that should not be overlooked

"France automatically will tell a woman and bring her back for an ultrasound if she comes in and they discover she has dense breasts. The Federal Drugs Authority in the States has introduced legislation, which was enacted last September.

"They have a law now which says that all women have to be told whether they have dense tissue or non-dense tissue. They have a right to that information.”

Ireland’s screening programme currently operates under a “one-size-fits-all” approach, which just isn’t good enough. This also ties into the multiple recent cases of young women presenting with breast cancer symptoms, only to be turned away due to their age, before being taken seriously after persistent pushing.

This results in lengthy waiting periods for scans, leading to the growth and spread of cancer in the meantime. What will it take for the Irish healthcare system to stop stalling and start listening?

Siobhán explained that "the false negatives are the real issue."

"We don't hear enough about the false negatives because they're the ones that damage. Women can die because of false negatives. Women are very unlikely to die from false positives or harm from further imaging.

"If you ask any woman, would you prefer not to know and live in this parallel universe where nobody tells you about this, or would you prefer to know and take control of it yourself and have the conversations? The answer would be, "Yeah, I’d prefer to know.”

According to the Irish Cancer Society’s latest statistics, 3,616 is the estimated number of average annual diagnoses of breast cancer in women.

This, combined with 43% of our screening population having categorically dense breasts, is too high a risk for our screening service to be taking.

Our healthcare system has ignored our worries, our concerns, and our battles long enough.

If we can improve our healthcare system and save women's lives, then those in power don't need to just listen; they need to act now.

For more information on breast density, click here or visit BeingDense.com

Sign Martha’s petition “Mandate Breast Density Reporting for Irish Women Now” here.