On 19th May we attended the Royal Marsden Partners Cancer Nurse and Allied Health Professionals Conference at Chelsea football club to talk about co-production, LGBTIQ+ health inequalities, and pelvic health. 

We hosted a “World Café” table with Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr Jo Ashcroft, who is part of a team of professionals working with OUTpatients on an upcoming education project about pelvic concerns and cancer in LGBTIQ+ communities and beyond. 

The pelvic concerns project team noticed that a lot of patients feel that they lack support for concerns about sex, intimacy, and incontinence, and that both patients and professionals can find these topics hard to discuss. To try and improve this picture, they ran focus groups to understand the challenges that different groups of patients had experienced when trying to talk about pelvic health. They then developed recommendations and education for health care professionals based on this, which will be delivered across London in coming months. 

At the event we shared some information about the project and spoke to professionals about their experiences of discussing pelvic health. We heard that a lot of people are already having these conversations, but that others don’t feel confident bringing up the topic. However, everyone was enthusiastic about improving their skills and recognised that this was an important area to improve patients’ wellbeing. 

We hope that this project will give professionals the skills to help patients feel more empowered about their bodies and intimate relationships. If you are in the RMP or London area, keep an eye out for our sessions over the next few months! 

To learn more about sex, intimacy, and cancer check out our Sex and Cancer Info Hub: https://outpatients.org.uk/sex/