13 hours ago
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Jenny Kirk,in Ipswichand Neve Gordon-Farleigh
Jamie Niblock/BBC
Dr Liz O'Riordan says women are left questioning who to turn to while health misinformation is "everywhere"
Women's health must be taken more seriously and women must be empowered to seek help for any changes in their health, a former breast cancer surgeon has said.
Dr Liz O'Riordan, who has had breast cancer three times, was a keynote speaker at the Let's Talk Women Health event held at The Hold in Ipswich on Saturday.
The event, attended by more than 300 people, aimed to dispel myths and online misinformation as well as connect women with experts in pregnancy, fertility, menopause, endometriosis and neurodiversity.
She said: "We are now realising we deserve more and for me it's teaching women what to say so they get taken seriously."
"Women on the whole - I wasn't - aren't very good at standing up for ourselves."
Due to misinformation being "everywhere", she said women are left questioning who to turn to for reliable resources.
She said: "You can't get easy access to your doctors. It's doctors like me who are creating content trying to breach that space and help people come to us and not Chat GPT.
"I think it's really important women get together and know they are not alone."
Jamie Niblock/BBC
Amy Peckham-Driver said women's health was everyone's responsibility and events like this helped teach people how they could support their loved ones
Amy Peckham-Driver, co-creator of the event, which is in its second year, said she wanted to bring women together to have conversations that need to be destigmatised.
She said: "Up until the 90s, women were largely excluded from medical research. We are lightyears behind where we should be in understanding women's bodies, health conditions and the challenges we face."
"Women's health is not just a woman's responsibility. This is for their partners, carers, colleagues, managers, anybody... so they can better support the people that they care about," she said.
Jamie Niblock/BBC
Julia Endacott said people could be "misguided" if they did not get advice from healthcare professionals
Julia Endacott works as a women's health physiotherapist and finished radiotherapy for breast cancer two weeks ago. As soon as she saw O'Riordan was headlining the event, she grabbed a ticket.
She said: "I think the attendance says it all, that it was a sellout. I think people are wanting this kind of thing and getting health advice and to have someone like Liz dispel myths.
"Unless you're hearing it from the professionals, you can be misguided.
"It's much better you got to the doctor and they reassure you than have a thing you might sit on and not get support for."
