The official opposition met with a handful of women from across the province to push for action from the Houston government for better health care.
It was Monday at Province House in Halifax where the four of them stood alongside NDP Leader Claudia Chender to share their stories.
Right now, more than 15,000 women are waiting for routine care, and Chender says the women she’s talked to aren’t surprised, but they are angry. On average, it’s expected these women will be waiting three years just to see a doctor.
It took nearly 20 years for Cairista MacIsaac to get her endometriosis diagnosis, a medical condition that causes painful menstrual cycles.
“Because I couldn’t get adequate care, in the process I lost my ability to work,” explains MacIsaac.
She says, she worked a government position, ending up on income assistance which reduced her annual income by roughly $34,000.
“I had to raise $28,000 for treatment and travel outside of the country. Endometriosis affected my physical, emotional, and mental health, my confidence, my identity, my social life, and my ability to show up for my friends, family, and community,” says MacIsaac.
Shauna Brousseau who also suffers from endometriosis says she would visit the ER with debilitating abdominal pain “until someone could do something to help.”
She says when doctors finally took her seriously, they found stage four endometriosis and a 15cm cyst that resulted in her losing an ovary and fallopian tube.
“If it had been caught and acted on years before, I wouldn’t have lost those organs, and since then, before and after surgery, it’s night and day. I have control over my life, and I’m here to say it shouldn’t take 10 years for women to get that help.”
Erin Hoth is a mother who wants to see midwifery care expanded in our province after a long application process.
“It became very clear I was struggling and just lack of sleep. I had depression, postpartum depression, and anxiety. My Stitches had not even come out yet, and the midwives were not permitted to stay and help,” Hoth says after explaining that midwifery care is cut off after just 6 weeks. “I felt alone, anxious, and unsupported.”
In a media release, the NDP says despite a commitment to fix health care, the Houston government still hasn’t delivered on lifechanging treatment centres they had previously promised, including mammograms at the IWK Health Centre.
Jane Archibald had just come from chemotherapy.
Despite getting annual mammograms, Archibald was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in her late 40s because her extremely dense breast tissue hid the tumor. She says that in other provinces, like BC, Ontario, and NWT, women with dense breasts have access to MRI or ultrasound screening and that if she had access to these tests, her cancer could have been caught sooner.
“Tests, double mastectomy, Lymph Node Surgery, radiation, and my current chemotherapy, which alone is costing Nova Scotia Health over $100,000. I lost a full year of income, and likely a lifetime of anxiety. I now have 10 years of endocrine therapy ahead, which probably means a decade of joint pain and severe hot flashes,” Archibald says.
NDP Critic for the Office of the Status of Women, Susan Leblanc, says, “When women don’t get the care they need, it affects our families, our communities, and our economy.”
