Disturbing trend of young women not wearing sunscreen

With more than 20 years experience in dermal therapies, Ms Tilsley of D&A Dermal Care, Springsure, said there was a trend happening at the moment with some women listening to certain podcasts on sunscreen use.

Ms Tilsley said the women were being told that sunscreen inhibits absorption of Vitamin D and that chemicals in some sunscreens were causing issues with their bodies.

"So a lot of women in their late '20s to mid '30s, who are on all these podcast trends tend to just listen to the information coming out of the podcasts and not fact checking or doing some research," she said.

"They just take these things as gospel and stop wearing sunscreen."

Ms Tilsley said a lot of the women she worked with were rural women on properties.

"I just try to encourage them to do their own research outside of listening to those podcasts, to look up that information and check to see if it's accurate or not," she said.

"I do give them information and let them know that all we really need is about 20 minutes in the sun with no SPF on the backs of our arms or the inside of our arms or legs before 10am or after 3pm, the earlier the better and the later the better. That's all we really need to get the amount of vitamin D our body needs.

"I also explain that there are sunscreens out there that have a lot of chemicals in them and alcohol that dries the skin out and sunscreens out there that can cause irritation and burning, but I always suggest to try before you buy and read the ingredients, educate yourself on all the ingredients...self education is the most important thing."

Ms Tilsley said she saw a lot of people with troublesome skin and had suggested to some of her clients that they should go and get their lesions checked by a GP.

And she had heard of cases where people have been seen by a doctor and had their concerns about a skin lesion dismissed only to find later it had turned into a bigger issue where they had to have an excision of a BCC (basal cell carcinoma) and skin grafts.

"I think if you walk into a GP's office and you think you're not being heard or your concerns aren't being addressed, it's always best to try and advocate for yourself, but if you can't in that moment or they just refuse to listen seek a second opinion," she said.

Ms Tilsley also knows of cases where people do not appreciate the importance of early detection and put off going to a doctor to get a skin discolouration or lesion checked.

"Early detection is best, but prevention is even better, taking those steps to stay out of the sun or cover up while in the sun," she said.

Ms Tilsley said GPs had a huge workload in regional areas and there were not enough dermatologists in rural and regional Queensland.

Cancer Council has numerous tips about sun protection including that unless cosmetics are labelled with an SPF50 or SPF50+ rating, women should wear additional sunscreen under their makeup if they were going to be in the sun for an extended period.

Cancer Council also recommends people reapply sunscreen every two hours. Visit www.cancer.org.au for more information.