In this episode, we talk to Dr Pauline Williams, a GP and an NRS Career Research Fellow. She’s based at the Institute of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Aberdeen.

Title of paper: Help seeking behaviour in women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer: a systematic review. 

Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0071

Reducing diagnostic delay, by improving patients’ help seeking behaviour, may reduce the UK’s excess gynaecological cancer mortality. This review identifies that symptom knowledge is not enough to initiate help seeking; patients must also have the time or means to attend health care and be motivated enough, by previous experience, to overcome any fear or embarrassment they may have.