Climate Change Just Ads Another Item to Women’s To-Do List: Not Getting Cancer
- Dr Audrey-Flore Ngomsik
- Oct 17
- 6 min read
If women's health challenges were a video game, we'd be stuck on the level that keeps adding new villains faster than we can defeat the old ones.
First, the medical world used men as the “default” research subject because women’s bodies were “too complex” (translation: inconvenient).
Then we learned heart attacks look different in women, but no one told the ER.
And now?
Climate change add to the party has beeing the newest cancer risk factor.
Because why should women only worry about tobacco, alcohol, HPV, genetics, workplace toxins, and societal pressure?
The study that should make us all sweat (And not just from hot flashes)
According to a groundbreaking study from the American University in Cairo, for every 1°C increase in temperature, cancer cases in women rise by 173–280 per 100,000 people.
Let me put that in perspective.
Imagine if every time your house got one degree warmer, your risk of a burglar breaking in increased by hundreds of percent. You'd probably invest in some serious air conditioning, right?
But we're not talking about your thermostat. We're talking about the entire planet's thermostat. And unlike your home AC, there's no quick fix button.
The researchers studied 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, a region expected to warm by 4°C by 2050—and found that breast, ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancers all became more common AND more deadly with each degree of rising temperature. This isn't about better detection, either. Deaths went up too. [1]
Climate change: The toxic ex-partner that just won’t leave women alone
You know that ex who shows up uninvited, ruins your peace, and won’t take a hint? That’s climate change for women’s health.
Here's how this toxic relationship works:
1. The direct hits
Rising temperatures mean more UV radiation (ozone depletion), more air pollution from droughts and wildfires, and more exposure to environmental carcinogens.
Yes, these affect everyone, but here's where it gets specifically worse for women:
Women are physiologically more vulnerable to climate-related health risks, particularly during pregnancy. And women face more barriers getting screened and treated (remember that 12.7% gender pay gap and the fact that women provide 2/3 of all caregiving?). So the same environmental exposure + worse access to healthcare = worse outcomes for women.[2]
It's like if two people got caught in the same storm, but one person has a raincoat and an umbrella while the other has neither AND is carrying a baby.
2. The biological betrayal
Higher temperatures can literally mess with your cells, causing oxidative stress, DNA damage, and inflammation. Heat stress can disrupt hormones in breast and ovarian tissue.
Your body is basically trying to survive in a hostile environment, and cancer cells are taking advantage of the chaos.[2]
3. The healthcare breakdown
Extreme weather doesn't just make you uncomfortable, it disrupts healthcare systems, making it harder for women to get screened, diagnosed, and treated early when cancer is most beatable.
Think of it like this: Climate change is like a villain that attacks on three fronts simultaneously: your body, your environment, and your ability to get help.
No wonder cancer rates are going up.
And just like everything else, It emphasises systemic inequalities
Here’s where CSR strategists like us stop being polite and start being real.
Marginalized women face a multiplied risk because they are more exposed to environmental hazards and less able to access early screening and treatment services
Dr. Sungsoo Chun explains.[1]
In plain English?
Climate change is hitting the women least equipped to fight back, the hardest.
If you're poor, living in a rural area, or belong to a marginalized community, climate change is coming for you harder than anyone else.
It's like climate change looked at all the existing inequalities women face and said, "You know what? Let's make ALL of this worse."
If you're poor, living in a rural area, or belong to a marginalized community, climate change is coming for you harder than anyone else.
It's like climate change looked at all the existing inequalities women face and said, "You know what? Let's make ALL of this worse."
According to a report written by the European Cancer Organisation [3], 12 million women in Europe are living with cancer right now?
The report details what women face right now:
Gender-based marketing from tobacco and alcohol industries
Lower screening rates in vulnerable communities
Financial toxicity (because treatment is expensive and women earn less)
Caregiving burdens (women provide 2/3 of all informal care)
Workplace discrimination after diagnosis
Underrepresentation in clinical trials
Now add "surviving a heating planet" to that list.
What should make you angry
Ovarian cancer cases rose the MOST with temperature increases
Breast cancer cases rose the least (but still rose)
Deaths increased by 171 to 332 per 100,000 people for each degree rise
The biggest increases happened in Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Syria
At this rate, a 4°C rise means quadruple the cancer impact in some regions by 2050.
Do the math.
That's potentially four times the current increase in cancer cases and deaths. In a region where 420,812 people already died from cancer in 2019, with 175,707 being women.
Now let's talk about Europe.
Europe is warming too. Not as fast as the Middle East (yet), but it's warming.
Europe currently has 12 million women living with cancer.
Climate change could add almost 800,000 more to that number by 2050, and that's with a conservative 2°C warming scenario.
If Europe warms by 3-4°C (which some models predict for Southern Europe), those numbers double or triple.
And remember: Europe isn't starting from zero
Unlike the Middle East, Europe already has:
1.2 million new cancer diagnoses in women every year
600,000 women dying from cancer annually
Massive inequalities in screening access (remember: only 7 EU countries offer cervical self-sampling)
Climate change isn't creating a new problem. It's pouring gasoline on a fire that's already burning.
What makes this different from every other cancer risk we know?
You can quit smoking.
You can limit alcohol.
You can get the HPV vaccine.
You can use sunscreen.
But you can't opt out of the planet's temperature.
It's like if someone told you breathing increased your cancer risk.
What are you supposed to do? Stop breathing?
Climate change is what experts call a "systemic risk", it touches EVERYTHING.
And unlike other risk factors that individuals can modify, this one requires massive, coordinated global action.
The triple threat: Biology, environment & access
Dr. Sungsoo Chun summarized it perfectly:
“Temperature rise acts through multiple pathways, exposure to carcinogens, healthcare disruption, and cellular stress, compounding women’s cancer risk over time.”
In CSR terms, that’s interconnected system failure.
Biological: Your cells are under stress from heat, inflammation is up, hormones are disrupted, even HPV (the virus that causes cervical cancer) might behave differently in hotter conditions.
Environmental: More wildfires = more air pollution. More droughts = contaminated water. More heat = more time outdoors getting UV exposure. More extreme weather = destroyed infrastructure.
Access: When hospitals are dealing with heat emergencies, cancer screenings get postponed. When roads are flooded, you can't get to treatment. When you're spending all your money on cooling your home, you can't afford healthcare.
The cruel irony: Women are part of the solution but bear the burden
Here's what really gets us:
Women are disproportionately affected by climate change's health impacts.
But women also:
Make up 70% of the health and care workforce (dealing with the fallout)
Provide 2/3 of all informal caregiving (taking care of sick family members)
Are more likely to adopt sustainable behaviors (trying to fix the problem)
Face more barriers in healthcare systems (making prevention and treatment harder)
It's like being forced to clean up a mess you didn't make while someone keeps dumping more garbage on your head.
What needs to happen
Climate action
Real emissions cuts (no, “net-zero by 2070” doesn’t count)
Investment in climate-resilient healthcare
Recognition that climate justice IS health justice IS gender justice
Health equity
Free, accessible cancer screening for ALL women
Research that includes sex and climate variables
Research funding that includes women AND climate impacts
Training healthcare providers to understand these intersecting risks
Health systems that can withstand floods, fires, and heatwaves
Corporate Responsibility
Stop gendered marketing of cancer-causing products (yes, tobacco and alcohol industries, I'm looking at you with your "pink gin" and "Mommy wine")
Address the gender pay gap (12.7% in the EU) so women can afford healthcare
Support for caregivers (who are mostly women)
Recognition that marginalized women face compounded risks
Women aren’t a research variable, they’re half the population
We’re conducting a real-time global experiment on women’s bodies, without consent.
Underrepresentation in clinical trials? Check.
Gender bias in diagnosis? Check.
Underfunding in women’s cancers? Check.
And now, add a planetary temperature variable nobody can escape.
This isn’t science, it’s negligence on a planetary scale.
What You Can Actually Do
Personally:
Get screened regularly.
Understand your environmental risk factors.
Support orgs linking climate justice + women’s health.
Vote like public health depends on it (because it does).
Collectively:
Demand climate-health integration in all CSR strategies.
Support universal screening access.
Expose greenwashing and pink-washing.
Policy-wise:
Mandate climate-risk analysis in public health planning.
Fund research on gendered climate impacts.
Recognize healthcare as part of climate adaptation.
What success looks like
A world where:
Health systems are climate-resilient
Women’s cancers are prioritized and preventable
Climate policy is gender-smart
Corporate responsibility includes health outcomes
That’s not utopian. That’s good governance, and smart CSR.
Climate change is not just an environmental issue. It’s a women’s health crisis.
Cancer is not just a disease. It’s a symptom of systemic inequality.
We can still rewrite this story, but only if we stop treating climate, health, and gender as separate conversations.
Because when the planet burns, women’s bodies bear the scars.
Comments