The Melbourne Newsroom

Contraceptive methods have failed to keep pace with women’s changing needs, impeding the sexual revolution, academics and feminists will argue at an event tonight at the BMW Edge Federation Square.

Women with a strong family history of breast cancer, but no genetic link, are not consistent in how they perceive their risk or in their efforts to manage the risk, leading some women to not adequately access breast cancer services, a University of Melbourne study has found.

An Australian study of families with genetic risk of bowel cancer has found that 50 percent of participants declined genetic testing when informed of insurance implications.

“This indicates that people have a significant fear of insurance discrimination which impacts their decision to have potentially life saving genetic testing,” says co-lead author Dr Louise Keogh, of the University of Melbourne’s Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society.