Everyday, we hear about how much our world is progressing. But despite all of these innovations and research obtained, women’s health— something that affects half the world’s population, has been neglected for most of medical history.
Dismissing Concerns
In healthcare, female patients continue to get gaslighted. Labelling their complaints as something hormonal, or something completely made up in their head, they get their concerns pushed aside as something nonexistent.
According to research from the University of Chicago, women are twice as likely to be dismissed when reporting pain, but yet, they pay 30% more for healthcare. And on average, it takes 6-10 years to diagnose endometriosis- a chronic condition that affects 1 in 10 women.
“It’s a man’s world”
For a long time, medical research and experiments were done on men, for men. Medications, and medical devices went through trial and error being strictly tested on male anatomy— whether it was a human or rat.
You’d think this would all be different as we’re in the 21st century now. Right? Well, it is. But, instead of using men as a reference to produce new medical knowledge, entire researches are carried out about male balding patterns that are funded more then those about chronic conditions related to female organs.
How to help Women’s Health research
A crucial part to improving women’s health is by advocating for it. You can do this by demanding proper care when you or a woman in your life feels neglected by doctors, support organizations like “Women’s Health Collective Canada”, or by volunteering to help research studies to ensure diversity as-well.
And just because knowledge on women’s health isn’t fully developed doesn’t mean it hasn’t come a long way. In just 50 years, access to contraceptives have become widespread, cervical cancer mortality’s been dropped by 50%, and understandings of the female hormones have increased.