“Conventionality Is Death!” by DANIELLE CHRISTENSEN

This issue of the X-Press marks the launch of the 1992 Edition of Campus Women. This yezr, it will move in something of a new direction, with a format that I hope will make it interesting and useful to the readers. Campus Women is a page that will cover a multitude of topics every week, including issues of health, safety, and life in general.

The purpose of Campus Women is to talk about things that might not apply to men at large. However, women make up 52% of the population, so any attempt to sum up the ideas and stances of women in one comment is not only futile, but ridiculous. All women do not think alike. The only gener- alization that can be make is to say that there are many experiences and thoughts that are common to more women than to men.

Feminist thought is incorporated into the viewpoint of the editors, but Campus Women is not here for the purpose of indoctrination. ‘While this page will concern itself with issues that relate most directly to women, men are encour- aged to read it as well. Humans all have to function to- gether, and we can’t get anything accomplished if the ‘*Battle of the Sexes’’ keeps going.

There are many things that we as women don’t know about ourselves and the way we work in society. To address that, Campus Women this year is to be primarily an information and idea-oriented page, and not a political column. If readers have ideas and comments, please feel free to con- tribute them.

BEFORE A MIRROR. With arms ae Sides, MONTHLY trad. io caret tor head, look carefully for Se ti changes in the size, Place a towel or pillow REAST SELF- cn reigied each breast. Look for one oe pe eae > fe: breast with your left

Gently squeeze both hand.

IN THE SHOWER. nipples and look for

Raise one arm. With discharge

fingers flat, touch every s

part of each breast,

gently feeling for a lump

or thickening. Use your

tight — to re “s With your arm resting on

our reast. your

pe! for your right Fingers flat, ba gently LQ = Sonia shont

breast. in small circles, starting eee ae = at the outermost top U See 2 edge of your breast Yesue. 100. an spiraling in tissue. to0. towa' nipple. ician i Examine every part of Jee = the breast. Repeat with left breast.

Campus Women

Breast cancer will affect one in every ten women at some point during their life. This is only beaten out in cancer mortality rates by lung cancer among women. Although all women are at risk of developing breast cancer, the high rist groups are women over fifty and any woman who has am immediate relative (such as a mother or a sister) who has developed the disease.

Early detection is the key to curing breast cancer. This is accomplished in two ways. The first and most important way for all women, but especially those between the ages 0 eighteen and forty, is the monthly self-examination. Self- examination looks for all the key symptoms of breast canct especially lumps or thickening in the breast tissue, tender‘ painful spots on the breast and nipple discharge especially! unusual amounts, colour or texture. The key to self-exami- nation is to get to know your own breasts so any change in them is obvious to you and will raise concern. The second way to screen for breast cancer is mammography. All women over forty years of age should have an annual mammogram done with their annual physical. Mammography though is not usually used on young women under the age of 35, unless they have an immediate relativ' with breast cancer. For these women, mammograms shoul! start five to ten years prior to when their relative was firs! affected. All other young women should be checked out (i an irregularity is found in examination) by ultrasonography before amammogram is done.

Although screening by mammography cuts the risk of mot! ity from breast cancer, self-examination is still the best b for early detection of tumours. Statistics show that mammography misses ten to fifteen percent of all tumou!s because of their small size. All women from eighteen ye of age up should do a monthly breast self-examination -- it could save your life years down the road.