If you are a man, you are more likely to suffer from a life-threatening condition. But if you are a woman, you are more likely to live with illness. Women spend 25 percent more of their lives in poor health than men. This, in short, is the gender health gap.
When a woman enters the hospital, she is less likely than a man to have her pain levels assessed, and if she is treated for pain, on average she will wait longer than a man to receive any treatment. If she has a condition that only affects women, she may find that there are no satisfactory treatments. If he is given drugs, they may not work as expected, or have side effects, as they may have been tested more in men. Even if he has a bisexual condition, research shows that he will be diagnosed later in life than a man.
This is not the result of a single problem, but the result of many failures in society in general and the health sector in particular. Sexism within health systems, where women’s symptoms are often dismissed and misdiagnosed. Poorly designed clinical trials that predominantly include men. Funding for biased research, which is rarely used for conditions that only affect women, or for finding out how women are affected by certain diseases. And medical schools don’t do enough to teach about women’s health.
A recent report from the McKinsey Health Institute describes the gender health gap as a “$1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies,” which is the extent of the disparity in health care for women worldwide. According to the BMJ, closing this gap in the UK could provide a boost of £39 billion ($51 billion) to the British economy. It would save lives, and increase the well-being of millions of people—both women and men.
Almost two years since the publication of the UK’s first Women’s Health Strategy, a 10-year plan to improve the health of women everywhere, the UK Department of Health announced on Monday that it plans to offer “patient passports,” digital health records. data that can be accessed by different healthcare providers. The hope is that the move will speed up patient care and reduce errors. Because of this, WIRED gathered experts from different fields of health to give their opinion on changes that could change the needle in women’s health quickly and in an accessible way.
Offer Early Screening Programs for PCOS
Karen Joash, a leading specialist in obstetrics and gynecology
Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is an endocrine disorder that affects approximately 10 percent of women of reproductive age worldwide. Despite the common condition, delayed diagnosis of PCOS is a significant problem, leading to many long-term health consequences. Addressing this delay should be a priority for the government because of the huge impact it has on public health.
Lack of health education is an important factor behind the delay in diagnosis: Women often do not know the symptoms, such as irregular periods, long hair on parts of the body where hair is normally thin, and acne. Untreated PCOS can lead to serious long-term consequences, including cardiovascular disease, infertility, and impaired glucose metabolism, significantly reducing quality of life and increasing health care costs.
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