While it tends to go unnoticed in a so-called egalitarian society, women’s health is often placed below that of men. Many women suffer from chronic or undiagnosed ailments that can and should be treated. But there are other reasons beyond equality of healthcare that can and should be addressed as well.
Caregivers and All the Other Things as Well
One thing we’ve noticed as the pandemic has drawn out into another year is that women are expected to give care and other emotionally draining pursuits around the house, even when they put in a full 40 hours or more a week at a job. They are having to choose between caring for their families and for getting the project done, which has a huge toll on their well-being.
Even in less well-developed environments, this choice is often presented as a fait accompli, as if their role in nature is to care for the young (and the husband as well.) But this is simply not the case. In a society that espouses equality, it cannot be. Women are working themselves ragged trying to care for the family, the job, and all the ins and outs of house maintenance, but little is being done about it.
It’s a given that many families rely on that second income, which makes women’s health all the more important. As a given, women must access health care more than men. This is not only due in part to their role as mothers but also because they do have more instances of chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular issues or circulatory problems. This is in addition to the need to access health care on the part of their children, which can seem a daunting task in and of itself.
Environment Impacts Health
In addition to sustaining greater degrees of heart disease, cancer, and other issues that arise with living longer, there’s a persistent issue that no one is speaking about. Depression impacts one in five women, usually between the ages of 40 and 59, and, while there is a greater focus on providing parity, it isn’t enough. One must build from the ground up.
While there is a fluctuation in hormones during this time that is expected with menopause, it’s as much cultural as anything else. Women are often told, in more subtle ways than direct communication, that their primary reason for being is as sex objects or vessels for the next generation. While this may in part be true, it is not the whole truth. Women may feel not just less desirable but less functional and meaningful, which is far from actual.
Maintaining Health Care
Plus, a woman’s health care considerations don’t simply stop at menopause, simply because she is becoming less able to nurture and bring forth life. She doesn’t simply divorce herself from that part of her body, a part that plays an incremental role in her body’s maintenance systems along with the renal system. Simply, the values change.
This is why ongoing care is as much about perception as it is actually monitoring and treating of physical disorders. Many women seem to think that they can stop caring for themselves at this turning point in their sexual health, but the change in hormones can mean many things. Maintaining health in this area impacts many issues, like the incidence of cancer, the onset of cardiovascular diseases, and other, less overt issues. Say you live in Virginia, don’t be afraid to seek out a VA women’s center to find care that’s right for you.
Men’s Standards Should Apply to Men
Women’s health care is complex because they fulfill different functions than men. Yet everything from insurance premiums to the outlook for employment at various points in life is pegged to men’s standards. Should this be the case when dealing with an aspect of anatomy that men don’t have, and the wide-ranging impacts that it can have on the other, shared systems of the body?
Urogynecology, pelvic floor maintenance, sexual health—which pertains to all, whether having sex or not—and breast health should be practiced by those who understand these differences and how they impact women. Whether it’s in a physical way or a more abstruse and cultural manner, all women experience the stigmas of health standards designed by men or for men, and it is time for this to change.
Women’s health is vital because each woman plays so many parts in society. They cannot be reduced to a single role or a small, out of the way corner of culture. Their care is care for the culture itself.
