WOULD YOU LET A MAN CHECK YOUR BOOBS?

The Woman's Own columnist has her say on mammograms, weddings and road trips

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It's a question that is currently dividing women everywhere...

Mammograms and cervical smears are two necessary evils of being a woman. Neither of them is much fun but we all know they can be life-savers. To ignore the reminder that your check-up is due is potentially signing your own death warrant. Both breast and cervical cancers caught early have very high survival rates.

Thankfully, I'm one of the lucky ones who has never found having her boobs checked every three years much of a problem. Not being particularly well endowed in that department it's a bit like having two fried eggs squished between a couple of glass plates.

A joke I always make with the poor radiographer struggling to get an image that doesn't mostly involve my ribs. But I wondered as I had my recent check-up, would I feel so confident and jokey if the person grappling my breasts into position was a man rather than a fellow female?

And as liberated as I like to think I am, the answer, I'm afraid, is no.

Incredibly, the X-rays we call mammograms (offered to women between the age of 50 and 71 every three years) are one of the only medical procedures in the UK that can currently only be performed by female staff.

But the Society of Radiographers has called for a change in policy due to 'critical' staff shortages of those who specialise in this area.