After their recent success with a program that had Thai women take Pap smear tests wearing Shrek masks so doctors could not see their faces during the intimate procedure, Kamphaeng Phet medical professionals are introducing more masked exams to encourage women to have tests to detect cervical and breast cancers.
They even appear to be making the medical staff wear masks as well. Doesn’t that make it hard for them to see?
Called “The Mask Pap Smear” campaign, women are given masks to cover their faces so that they feel less ashamed when undergoing tests on sexual organs, reported Thai PBS.
Sakaeo Tambon Administration Organization Mayor Suwan Supakitcharoen said over the weekend that the percentage of women aged 30-70 willing to take these tests was usually less than ten percent because they felt embarrassed to have their sex parts examined by medical staff.
Suwan noted that, to solve this issue, the local tambon, with financial help from the Health Insurance Fund, provided masks for the women so that the medical staff could not see their faces.
After the introduction of the masks, they are now getting 40-50 women coming to be examined daily, many more than they got before the masks were introduced.
One woman in the waiting room, Wanpen Sapcharoen, 50, admitted she was more comfortable taking the tests while wearing a mask.
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