Bupa health assessment

[BelleCurve]

Bupa offer two types of corporate health assessment

Essential Health Assessment or
Female Health Assessment

so either you are "essential" or "female"?

That is exactly my point, Sultan. Essential - and every other - policy is for women and men. Women are not excluded from any of the policies. What BUPA have done is given women everything that men have plus extra policies. The default is both - equal.

It's like giving men and women a meat, potatoes and veg main course (plus of course equal vegetarian and vegan options), and then given women only a pudding as well. Cue me being ripped into for comparing a uterus to a treacle tart.

And just so we are clear, I did follow the 'why don't men get a separate one too?' question. My understanding is that men under around 50 don't qualify for routine prostate screening due to low incidence. I know the NHS don't offer it, and I assume BUPA follow the same guidelines. And re breast cancer;

• 49,936 women and 349 men in the UK were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2011.
• There were 11,684 female and 78 male deaths from invasive breast cancer in the UK in 2011.
• 85.1% of adult female breast cancer patients in England survived their cancer for five years or more in 2005-2009.
• 5,765 women and 26 men in the UK were diagnosed with in situ breast carcinoma in 2010.

So I don't think the comparison is a valid one.

If Essential Health Assessment is available to both men and women I can't really see the problem.
I doubt that Bupa are suggesting that men are more essential than women.

Yes, apologies for not saying that men die of breast cancer too, remiss of me given that a work colleague's husband looks like he will soon

No, men don't need prostate cancer exams until post 50. And, like I said, a man has to be seriously unlucky to die from it rather than with it.

I don't think anyone's saying that bupa feels that women are less essential than men, more that they see men as the default and women as other. On it's own, it's small fry, when looked at in the context of all the other instances even within healthcare where men are default and women are other it's annoying

Context is everything.

So, back to the op;

'so either you are "essential" or "female"?'

That was the OP's take on it. Does anyone agree that I could easily write,

'essential female, essential male, or female only' assessments

and mean the same thing? Is that the complaint - the lack of explicitness? Would my alternative solve the problem?

Not really, no.

If a man going to any of the other assessments gets full checks of all his body parts, why would a woman at the same assessment not get this "full service" and instead has to pay for a "special assessment" for the same reassurance? THAT'S what's unfair.

man has to be seriously unlucky to die from it rather than with it.

My father was seriously unlucky, and it was because of that that his brother got tested early by the NHS, and is still alive because they were able to treat him early.

I would expect an essential test to cover height, weight, BP and not so much else. I'd expect a woman's test to cover that plus breasts and cervical smear. I'd expect a man's test to cover essential plus prostate and whatever other tests are appropriate for men.

I think BUPA is partly at fault, because they should indeed be offering men's tests, and by not doing so, it does imply that men are essential, and women are just add-ons. But I think it's also the corporate company who bought the cover - they could have also said, "If you're not offering separate cover for both sexes, we're going to another provider."

Not that I know whether other providers are any better. If I could be bothered, I could go and look at my own company-provided healthcare policy, which isn't BUPA, but I can't actually be bothered.

Really sorry to hear that EBearhug

Sorry I sounded flippant.

I am baffled at some people's bafflement here. If the description of the health checks were fair, it would be "men" and "women", or "essential" and "extra"/"extended". Not essential vs women.

And I am baffled that your are baffled that I am baffled.

I think what I have struggled with from the very start is this idea that it is 'or' or 'versus' - essential or female; essential versus women. It isn't. All we have is an extra option for women. Because all the assessments are aimed at women. They don't exclude them. If anything, it is men who are short-changed (at least in this context, although there are sound medical reasons why).

I feel like I am the only one not saying 'what about the menz'.

It is called the Essential Health Assessment as that is precisely what it is. It consists of the most essential health checks which could hopefully uncover a problem at an early stage.
It includes breast examination for women and testicle examination for men.

It's not essential vs women though poofus. It's just a name to describe the most essential health checks. It does what it says on the tin.

Curwen you have explained your point clearly. It's just that some people disagree with you about it.

Perhaps you are baffled that, even after explaining why someone is wrong, they persist in their wrong view. They must just have not understood you! Better explain it again.

I have corporate health care with Bupa. I have the female package.

If reads as "Essential Plus - female" on the documents.

I'm baffled by curwens bafflement at poofs bafflement of curwen original bafflement.

(oh and borg seriously??? )

I am unbaffled. The wording makes some women feel uncomfortable. They find it offensive. Maybe they could ask BUPA to reword it.

And no - Borg not seriously. I have seen it used as a joke by people on here before...

If it was 'essential v female' than I's agree thus was an example of female being "other". But it's not.

It is part of a list of six, and the described content of the others shows the they are for both sexes, I have no criticism of this list.

It is right that women's health checks exist in addition to other checks, because of the biological differences and the genuinely different disease patters. I think it is necessary to refer to biological sex when naming and describing these tests.

So again, why no Mens Health assessment if it is so important to refer to biological sex?

I agree because I think they should offer a men's assessment.

But (as the leaftet has been quoted selectively) are all these tests offered to the same age working population, and what ages are they? Because the sex-related conditions do not emerge at the same time in women and men, and it's not clear what ages which screening are offered to.

If all ages, then yes, I would definitely support the addition of a well-man check.

AuntieStella - the link that Curwen posted isn't what the OP is talking about. The link is for individuals using BUPA but the OP was talking about the options given as an employee under the corporate section - only two options, essential and female, not six different options.

It's like giving men and women a meat, potatoes and veg main course (plus of course equal vegetarian and vegan options), and then given women only a pudding as well.

No, it's not like this . It's like offering two meals on the menu, one called "Essential lunch" and one called "Women's lunch". And regardless of whether or not the "women's lunch" had an extra pudding, I would be pretty pissed off at the terminology, which again implies that men and the normal versio of human, and women are somehow other, extra, or different from the norm.

I don't think I can explain it any better than that.

Oh lord, why can I not type properly on the ipad? That should say "men are the normal version of human", of course.

Interesting. Okay. There are several hospitals near where I live. One is called The Liverpool Women's Hospital. None of the others make reference to gender in their name. Is this wrong? Does it piss people off too? Does it make the same inferences?

I don't think that's really the same. It makes sense to group physicians by speciality - so there is the specialist eye hospital, the specialist heart hospital, and the specialist women's hospital. Although I would prefer it to be called "gynaecological hospital" or something like that - it's not a dirty word.