Women’s Gender Related Health Issues Part 2

When it comes to chronic disease effecting both women and men, three main processes should be noted:

1. The prevalence of chronic disease is on the rise in both women and men.

2.The prevalence of certain chronic disease is outstandingly more dominant in women.

3. Diseases that just a few decades ago were considered typically “male diseases” are becoming more and more common in women.

A better sense of the total burden of disease suffered by women can be obtained by using the DALY indicator (The disability-adjusted life year) which is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death developed by Harvard University.

Cardiovascular diseases – mainly coronary heart disease and stroke (cerebrovascular disease) – killed 1.2 million women aged between 20 and 59 years in 2004 but caused ill-health and suffering to many millions more.

Cancer: In 2004, cancers killed just under one million women aged 20–59 years, with 80% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries, where women consistently have a
lower cancer survival rate because of limited access to screening, late diagnosis, and inadequate access to effective treatment.

The most common cancer in women under age 60 globally is cancer of the breast, followed by cancers of the cervix, lung and stomach. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women between the ages of 20 and 59 years in high-income countries, where it causes more than one in every 10 deaths in this age group.

The World Health Organization in the Women and Health Report from 2009 states that mental health problems, particularly depression, are major causes of disability for women of all ages. While the causes of mental ill-health may vary from one individual to another, women’s low status in society, their burden of work and the violence they experience are all contributing factors.

Gender Related Disease Prevalence
Looking at women’s social and cultural evolution over the past 100 years, reveals a dramatic increase in typically gender related conflicts such as the struggle for the right to vote, for education, equal representation in government, equal wages, abortions and many others.

As women joined the work force and academia both sexes were confronted with new challenges. The expectation of women was that they fulfill both work and domestic responsibilities. The need for more male domestic involvement provoked re-examination and public discussion of norms and belief systems regarding gender related role models.

As the media gained power , promoting very controversial female images and role models mainly for adolescent girls, there has been a significant increase in the number of adolescent girls suffering from eating disorders and other conditions indicating distortion and conflict regarding body image and self esteem.

Body and Mind are One
There is no doubt that the overall rise in stressors typically related to the issues women deal with in the 21 century is connected to the rise in chronic disease prevalence.

The body symbology of heart disease is giving in the work place accompanied by a sense of lack of appreciation. As women joined the work force and took on more executive positions, the prevalence of heart disease in women started rising.

Breast cancer represents conflict regarding giving and reciprocation. Common in women who dedicate themselves to husbands and children at the expense of their own self-realization causing resentment and frustration, women who give to men who fail to help themselves and conflicts between giving in the work place and to family.

Autoimmune diseases, in which the body attacks itself are three times more prevalent in women than in men, representing guilt, self-criticism and feelings of inadequacy women commonly experience.

Fibromalgia, a typically “women’s disease” ( 95% of all patients are women) represents unresolved emotional pain manifesting as chronic physical pain.

Exceptionally interesting is that 78% of all thyroid cancer patients are women. Given that historically women were expected to suppress their emotions to always be polite, it’s not surprising that the throat area, center of expression is so vulnerable to disease.

What Can Be Done?
Its vital that all women recognize individual and gender related body-mind connections and acknowledge the effect social and cultural norms have on the development of disease. Social and cultural evolution doesn't happen overnight therefore its our responsibility as women to ensure our health. We must think outside the box and find solutions that are aligned with our truth and suitable to our preferences and life styles, even if these solutions differ from acceptable norms.

Each woman must identify her truth and find ways to express and manifest it in her everyday life.

The only way to significantly alter the current disease burden is to look inside ourselves, resolve the conflicts that manage us and create realities that support our emotional and evolutionary needs.

If every woman makes one little step in this direction, together we will pave the way to better and stronger gender related health.