Women 's Health And Health Research

Not only are women deliberately kept out of joining medical schools and medical practices in general, their bodies are also not typically studied in medical science and research, because instead, male bodies are more often used. This makes the male body seem dominantly normative and generalizes an idea that women’s bodies must be similar to men’s, and dangerously disregards women’s particular differences. This causes medical professionals to make decisions based on this research that may not be particularly appropriate for women, such as the fact that aspirin reduces the rate of heart attacks for men but not for women, much to many doctors’ surprise. Gender stereotypes also exist within the medical field that may prevent women from receiving the care and attention they need, as many doctors often assume women are emotional, and thus, exaggerating their symptoms, versus men who are believed to be more rational. This also affects the amount of care they receive, which sometimes is too much or too little because some procedures like cesarean sections and hysterectomies are performed too often when other options would be just as adequate, but unfortunately, women’s reproductive systems are more emphasized than other just as important aspects of their health. In other instances, they do not receive as much diagnosis or are not taken as seriously as men are, by their doctors. According to our earlier readings, men are more often to interrupt women, so men physicians can often

Nancy McMenamy and Dr. Judy Johnson-Russell, Texas Woman’s University - Dallas, TX Reviewed by Nancy McMenamy, Texas Woman’s University - Dallas, TX, 2008 and Wendy Jo Wilkinson, METI - Sarasota, FL, 2009

Mission: Advance the health and safety of women and girls with a focus on disease prevention and wellness. (cdc.gov/women)

A decision that grants coverage to a technology that, in practice, will fail to improve health outcomes will ineluctably result in worsening patients’ health status while creating huge opportunity cost. In turn, a decision that denies reimbursement for a technology that, in reality, will fulfill the promised health gains will certainly deprive patients from getting access to effective health technologies and will potentially increase productivity losses at the expense of the society. A simple illustration of these consequences is the controversial initiation of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women. Indeed, several observational studies (Hulley S et al, 1998; Humphrey LL et al, 2002), published before the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study (Writing group for the Women’s Health Initiative investigators, 2002), posited that HRT conferred protection against adverse cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women under treatment. This turned out to be wrong as per the intermediary results of the WHI study. The results of this study suggested a significant increase in the number of strokes in postmenopausal women within one arm of the randomized clinical trial. As a consequence, the National Institute of Health, at the time, stopped prematurely the trial (Writing group for the Women’s Health Initiative

Men’s and women’s health and healthcare have been plagued by serious issues in the United States for generations. The articles Men at War: Vietnam and Agent Orange by Cynthia R. Daniels, Masculinities and Men’s Health: Moving toward Post-Superman Era Prevention by Don Sabo, Health Care Reform-A Woman’s Issue by Catherine DeLorey, and Why the Precautionary Principle? A Meditation of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and the Breasts of Mothers by Sandra Steingraber, all center around different issues in healthcare. All the articles focus on the problems of healthcare and how it should be reformed, but two take on the topic of women’s health, while the other two focus their articles on men’s healthcare.

Unless you have long legs like a runner or an athlete, a large chest, a small waist, or skinny yet curvy, an apple body type like pregnant women or yet a slim body and impeccable clothing you are lesser, ugly. Women in sports categories tend to use sports bras, companies are one reason. But, on the other hand, women give birth to a newborn every day and endure bed-rest. In “The Bed-Rest Hoax” and in “Why Are Sports Bras So Terrible” these two aspects are represented in various ways. Nonetheless, to what extent are women’s needs served by medical practice?

Women in today’s society have a lot more power and say in what they can or cannot do.

Women’s physical appearance change with their roles in society. From homemakers with feminine, hourglass figures, women eventually filled positions in offices and went to work. It was in 1941 to 1951 that one of the surges in the clerical work was “accompanied by a clear feminization trend” (A History of Women and Work 10). Later, the number of single mothers increased. Women learned to take on responsibilities that are usually shared with another parent. As Sullivan quoted Hewitt, “the acute awareness of feeling alive induced by pain” replaces their psychological issues with a “euphoric feeling of mastery” (544). Undergoing strenuous activities to stay fit to the extent of getting underweight gives a feeling that could be similar to that attained from painful body modifications like tattooing. In order for single mothers to be able to fulfill their duties at work and at home, they had to build stronger physiques. This also doubles as a confidence boost to remind them that they are capable of doing well in raising their families. This body requirement could eventually become obsessing.

One of the United States’ core values is the right to privacy, a right evidenced in the constitution’s fourteenth amendment. This amendment, of course, is the one cited in cases of women’s reproductive health rights, an issue as contentious as ever in the 21st century. With the federal government working seemingly endlessly to revert fifty-year-old decisions pertaining to women’s health rights, one must ask themselves if such undermining of Supreme Court decisions is constitutional, and why it is so important to men in Congress to legislate women’s bodies. With half a century of feminist progress behind us, one would think the

We at the Women's Health Resource Center are pleased to welcome Nurse Practitioners Inna Anderson FNP-C and Beatrice Bellanton FNP-C, to our growing Gynecological Practice. Beatrice and Inna will participate in a wide range of patient care needs with Dr. Besong.

Women make up just slightly over half the U.S population (US Census Bureau, 2010) and should not be even considered a part of a minority group. The female population should acquire the same equal research attention as men do, especially when it comes to health issues. The unavoidable, yet quite simple realities of breastfeeding, menstruation, menopause, along with pregnancy require special scrutiny from medical experts. Those medical specialties are generally referred as gynecologists or obstetrics, who focus on the exclusive needs of a female’s reproductive health throughout their lifespan. Historically, the health needs of women have been disregarded as well as their fundamental rights. However, over the past few decades, it has grabbed the media and the government’s attention causing some major changes in support of women’s rights and health care.

Throughout the course of history, the field of healthcare has always been in a state of flux; however, healthcare has also had one steady aspect and that is women have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to traversing the system. Women have and still do face many obstacles within the health care system. These obstacles include research androcentrism, medicalization, gender stereotyping, reproductive rights, differential treatment, and fertility issues, among others… These obstacles must be explored and analyzed in order to better help women navigate the healthcare system and to support women’s rights in the present and future.

I learned a lot about women's health issues from the Ted talk His and hers...healthcare by Dr. Paula Johnson. I didn't know that the #1 killer of Women in the US is heart disease, #1 cancer killer of women in US is lung cancer, and the #1 disability for women in US is depression. It was interesting to learn that "women who have never smoked are 3x more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than men who never smoked," yet their survival tends to be better than men.

The Women’s Health Issues course this semester have been interesting and informative. I gained great perspective on health topics affecting women’s health status and ways biological and social factors put women at a higher stake for health issues. One of the most important thing I am taking away from this class is the importances of understanding women’s health, as a Public Health student women’s health has been a topic of interest for a long time. Coming from a developing country where many women grapple with health issues from discrimination and prescribed roles, it has been important for me to take this class and to have better understanding on health disparities that exist globally between women and men. In the following paragraphs I

After having analysed what the 50 women had to say in the Pilot study, the following Methodology was adopted for the final study. Quantitative Methodology with the Survey was considered the most feasible method for the present study. It is less oriented towards representatives and more towards finding associations and explanations, less towards description and more towards prediction, less lightly to ask ‘how many’, than ‘why’ and what goes with ‘what’.