What Are Some Current Challenges in Women’s Health?
Question by lmilllllll: What are some current challenges in women’s health?
How are women treated differently in the healthcare system?
Best answer:
Answer by Poo Poo
In relation to men? Women aren’t treated differently, and certainly not worse.
Add your own answer in the comments!
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I don’t think it comes down to gender. A single mother obtaining healtcare during pregnancy will probably be treated differently than a married one. Unfair, but sometimes this happens. But the same goes for men in certain situations.
I don’t think they are, however I do think there is a huge bias against the lower class. Many hospitals and doctors give half asss treatment to these people because they either so not have insurance or the Medicare they do have only pays for a small portion of the treatment…the hospital then eats the cost. This is becoming a larger concern with the government cutting health care on both federal and state levels.
As far as challenges in women’s health. I think there is a HUGE (no pun intended) to educate women about healthy weights. Big is beautiful, but only when you are not grossly over weight. There should not be the positive reinforcements for women who are not caring for themselves properly. It is true, that some simply cannot help it, but that is only true for a minority of obese women.
I also think we should be focusing more on heart health. Though breast cancer has been largely publicized as a threat, heart disease is the number one cause of death for women. It has begun to gain attention, but know where near what breast cancer has in the past. I think programs that support heart health need to be implemented on the same level as breast cancer has been.
I thik the Pill – in all these years they’ve never bothered to iron out the little problem of the side effect ‘low libido…’ :-/
In the health-care system, women are generally given more preferential treatment, as opposed to men’s health, which is largely ignored. Even though men die on average several years younger than women.
the government allots more money. 50% more money is spent on womens health than mens health. roughly 400 million for womens health and 200 million for mens health….
So in yet another field of interest feminists have proven themselves as opressor’s.
Here’s a few challenges in women’s health in the US based on extensive research studies as documented by the US Dept of Health and Human Services:
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/womenh1.htm
Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States yet:
1a) Women with atherosclerosis and high cholesterol receive less intense cholesterol management than men:
The researchers examined cholesterol management of 243 primary care patients from one academic medical center. The patients had coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, or peripheral vascular disease and high (over 130 mg/dl) low-density (bad) cholesterol. Cholesterol management by either medication adjustments or LDL monitoring occurred at 31.2 percent of women’s visits and 38.5 percent of men’s visits. **Women were 23 percent less likely than men to have their cholesterol managed.**
Persell, Maviglia, Bates, and Ayanian, J Gen Intern Med 20:123-30, 2005 (AHRQ grant T32 HS00020)
1b) Existing heart disease is undiagnosed in half of women who have a first heart attack:
Many women who suffer a first heart attack have cardiac risk factors—such as high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes—that have not been treated and represent missed opportunities to prevent heart problems in women. The researchers reviewed medical records of 150 women in one Minnesota county who suffered a heart attack between 1996 and 2001. Over the 10 years preceding their first heart attack, the women made a total of 8,732 outpatient visits and had 457 hospitalizations, but only **52 percent of the women** had been diagnosed with heart disease. About 80 percent of women with high blood pressure were treated with antihypertensive medications, but only **28 percent of women** were prescribed drug therapy for high cholesterol or lipid levels.
Yawn, Wollan, Jacobsen, et al., J Women’s Health 13(10):1087-100, 2004 (AHRQ grant HS10239).
1c) Women and men with cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol may receive different levels of treatment:
This study found that among people with CVD, men have their cholesterol measured more often, are treated more aggressively (e.g., with statins), and have lower levels of so-called “bad” cholesterol or LDL-C than women.
Kim, Hofer, and Kerr, J., Gen Intern Med 18:854-63, 2003 (AHRQ grant HS11540)
1d) Lack of research on women limits usefulness of studies on CHD:
Although CHD causes more than 250,000 deaths in women each year, much of the research in the last 20 years on CHD has either **excluded women entirely or included only limited numbers of women**. Two reviews focused on CHD in women were conducted recently by AHRQ’s Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) at the University of California, San Francisco/Stanford. They examined the usefulness of various lab tests and treatments for CHD in women, the role of exercise, and the effectiveness of behavioral changes in lowering CHD risk in women.
Copies of the two reports, Results of a Systematic Review of Research on Diagnosis and Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease in Women, Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No. 80 (AHRQ Publication No. 03-E035 full report; 03-E034 summary) and Diagnosis and Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease in Women: Systematic Reviews of Evidence on Selected Topics, Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No. 81 (AHRQ Publication No. 03-E037, full report; 03-E036 summary) are available from AHRQ (contract 290-97-0013).
1e) Insurance status does not explain male-female differences in heart attack treatments and outcomes:
According to this study of more than 327,000 men and women who had a heart attack between 1994 and 1997, women received fewer cardiac treatments and procedures and had worse outcomes than men, but insurance status did not explain the disparities. Regardless of insurance status, women generally were less likely than men to receive aspirin, beta-blockers, intravenous heparin, or nitrate therapies within the first 24 hours of hospital admission. Also, women were much less likely than men to undergo coronary angiography, angioplasty, or coronary bypass surgery, and they were significantly more likely than men to die in the hospital.
Canto, Rogers, Chandra, et al., Arch Int Med 162:587-93, 2002 (AHRQ grant HS08843).
for every £1 spent on male health EIGHT is spent on womens health despite the fact that men are more likely to die from all ten leading causes of death and live 7 years less the women (in the early 19th cent the gender gap was only 1 year)
– Weight management: More men than women in the UK are overweight (67% of men compared to 57% of women) but men are much less likely to be offered help and support in weight loss programmes in GP surgeries. Analysis of 1256 patients across 58 GP practices in 2004 found that only 26% of those attending structured weight loss programmes at local surgeries were men, despite the service being – in theory – equally available to both sexes. Evidence suggests that men who are offered support lose weight as effectively as women.
– Cancer: Men are almost twice as likely as women to die from virtually all the cancers that affect both sexes, mostly because of preventable causes such as smoking, poor diet and alcohol use. This suggests that local and national cancer prevention programmes are less effective with men than women.
– Smoking: Smoking is the single most important preventable cause of heart disease and causes virtually all cases of lung cancer. Historically, men have always been much more likely to smoke than women and although numbers of smokers have declined among both sexes (and more sharply among men), it is still the case that men are more likely to be smokers (28% of men, 26% of women). NHS smoking cessation programmes are much less likely to succeed in attracting male participants. In 2002, only 98,000 men took part in NHS programmes compared with 130,000 women (i.e. only 43% of participants were men).
– Use of Primary Care Services: Men are much less likely to visit their GP than women. Under the age of 45, men visit their GP only half as often as women. It is only in the elderly that the gap narrows significantly – and even then women see their GP measurably more frequently than men. A survey of men conducted by the Men’s Health Forum suggested that many men are unhappy with the service provided at their local GP surgery for reasons that are rectifiable: unhelpful opening hours; perceived emphasis on services for women and children; and undue bureaucracy.
– Depression: although men and women suffer equally from depression, men are less likely to seek help, clinical diagnoses are skewed towards women and more men end up killing themselves, going missing and drinking heavily. What is required is a better understanding of male mental health, better training for clinicians, awareness-raising amongst men and more accessible services.