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Angela Ransby said a trial for a new test to detect womb cancer made her feel women's health was being taken seriously
A patient said she felt women's health was being taken seriously by a hospital after it began trialling a new and less invasive test for womb cancer.
Angela Ransby, 56, from Ipswich and who has had endometriosis for 20 years, recently visited Ipswich Hospital after she experienced post-menopausal bleeding.
Expecting to have tests she feared could be painful and invasive, she said she was pleasantly surprised to see the hospital trialling a new test called WID-easy, which was similar to a smear test.
The test is also being trialled at Colchester Hospital and Dr Wendy MacNab, the clinical director for gynaecology at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), said she was delighted to know the teams were "doing good".
Ransby said her endometriosis over the years had caused "debilitating" and "indescribable" pain.
She had a partial hysterectomy and bowel resection, and the endometriosis spread over her body including into her lungs.
She had been on hormonal treatment, but about a year ago experienced post-menopausal bleeding.
At the hospital, Ransby said the doctors explained they were going to offer a WID-easy test.
She said she was told by the doctor: "If you'd have come in a week ago or two weeks ago, we wouldn't have been able to offer you what we can offer you now, which is this new swab."
Ransby continued: "That's when she explained that Ipswich had been selected to do this kind of test... she was saying, 'This is incredible for women', and what an asset it was for Ipswich."
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Womb cancer, also known as endometrial cancer, typically develops in older women
ESNEFT is the first trust in the East of England to trial the WID-easy and it can provide results within days rather than weeks.
"It's not my experience to go to women's health in the NHS and Ipswich Hospital, and come out thinking, 'Bloody hell, that was good, that was even tolerable'," Ransby added.
When asked if it had given her confidence that women's health was being taken seriously in this area, she said "it genuinely does".
"I couldn't believe it," she added.
"I'm telling everybody, going, 'Oh I'm a real champion of it now', because I think it's hard enough as a patient who requires that level of treatment.
"But I think that if you're also a practitioner giving it and when you're seeing multiple women that you're hurting, that's tough."
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Wendy MacNab said funding for the trial had been secured by the East of England Cancer Alliance
MacNab, who is also a consultant gynae-oncologist at the trust, explained that previously women would first be given ultrasound scans, but it could lead to false positive results.
That in turn previously meant that many women were then having unnecessary invasive procedures.
Instead this test involves a swab taken from the vagina and behind the cervix.
Results are processed between three and five days and if no cancer is found, there is a very low risk of the patient developing cancer.
If cancer is detected, then further tests are arranged and the test means more patients could be seen and done so quicker.
MacNab said: "I felt it was really important because why would I want to offer, as a gynaecologist, a less effective service?
"When I can offer something that's quicker, less invasive, more accurate, less uncomfortable to go through."
She added that she could "see all the knock on benefits" and described it as a "no brainer".
"It's been a really busy few months setting it up, but it's also been a real pleasure to introduce something that seems to have such a positive response.
"It's not just because of the positive response, but lots of people in other departments have said, 'Doesn't that sound like such a good thing to be doing'.
"There's a little positive glow we've all got from it."
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