BMJ: Women’s health needs beyond sexual, reproductive, and maternal health are missing from the government’s 2024 priorities

[RethinkingLife]

Much needed summary of known issues and health inequalities that affect women beyond the sex-specific matters.

A view of women’s health as synonymous with sexual, reproductive, and maternal health means gaps in health provision across a wider spectrum
Since its launch in 2022, the Women’s Health Strategy for England has made important progress to narrow gaps in women’s health provision, including improved access to hormone replacement therapy and the rollout of specialist women’s health hubs…
Inequalities in medical knowledge and treatment across many common disease areas, including cardiovascular disease, mental illness, endocrine conditions, and autoimmune disorders, negatively impact women’s morbidity and mortality.3 These inequalities contribute to women living in poor health for an average of nine years longer than men.4
Differences exist, for example, in women’s and men’s experiences of heart attacks, including symptoms, age at onset, effective treatments, and overall outcomes.5 Yet troponin blood tests to diagnose myocardial infarction are often not reported against sex specific thresholds.6 When such thresholds are used, accurate diagnosis increases by 42% for women.7 Although diabetes is more prevalent in men than women, women are at greater risk of diabetes related mortality than men and have a greater risk of complications, such as a 27% higher excess risk of stroke8 and a 44% higher excess risk of coronary heart disease.9 Women are, however, less likely than men to receive the care recommended by clinical guidelines, and guidelines are not routinely sex specific…

Witt A, Womersley K, Strachan S, Hirst J, Norton R. Women’s health needs beyond sexual, reproductive, and maternal health are missing from the government’s 2024 priorities BMJ 2024; 384 :q679 doi:10.1136/bmj.q679
https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q679?u

Because women only matter when it comes to procreation and sex. Otherwise we are just small men.

And people wonder why I get irritated with them when they say they have never encountered sexism.

Yes this ^

Precisely. It matters so much that people don't seem aware of it or are so willing to set it aside as if of negligible importance.

It underpins a lot of the differences in outcomes for treatments and the speed of diagnosis at an early enough stage to make a difference.

I don’t think enough people are aware of this. Thankyou for highlighting OP

Thanks OP. This is refreshing reporting from the BMJ.

And clearly these issues need attention.

I don't think this is true tbh. No when it comes to health care.

Why have we had so many maternity scandals if women's reproductive health mattered?

The issue is more that maternity services cost money (negligence claims and higher insurance). Births gone bad represent a significant and disproportionate number of all NHS compensation claims both in number and value.

Why are menopausal issues now in the news? Because they've been monetised. Someone makes a lot of money out of it. It also makes women more attractive for longer as a side effect but it's mostly about money.

Other areas of medicine aren't financially worth investing time and money in. They don't hit headlines because women's health is regarded as 'niche' by editors.

Politically it's not worth it either. Women don't complain because they don't think they will be taken seriously and because they've been conditioned to put up and shut up and 'just be grateful we have the NHS it could be worse'. This it's not a political priority because there no campaign or pressure for change. And frankly women don't have the time to campaign for better outcomes.

Then medicine itself is just dominated by arseholes.

Thank you posting this, very interesting

Why are menopausal issues now in the news? Because they've been monetised. Someone makes a lot of money out of it. It also makes women more attractive for longer as a side effect but it's mostly about money.

There’s a major workforce issue. Many women in their 50s reduce their hours or retire early because they struggle to manage meno symptoms and hold down full-time work. We have sectors of our workforce which skew female and some have an aging profile, professions like nursing, teaching, veterinary surgeons, general practice. Women qualifying in these professions often reduce their hours during their kids’ early years because childcare is expensive and patchy. The government has recently started looking much more closely at the 50+ workforce and how to keep them in work for longer. Basically, with an aging population and shrinking younger age workforce and tax base, we need them to keep going. If you add in factors like withdrawing nursing bursaries, which crocked university applications from mature age (21+) nursing applicants, and Brexit, which crocked recruitment of EU HCP into the NHS, the govt needs to retain menopausal women or critical services will start to fall over.

Thanks also @RethinkingLife for posting this article. It’s a sobering read.

RTB - Why have we had so many maternity scandals if women's reproductive health mattered?

It's one of the few areas where money is spent on women, not men. And, as you've eloquently pointed out, it doesn't follow that it's been spent well, nor reflects women's needs.

BettyF - There’s a major workforce issue.

Yes, it's only now that there's a viable argument for paying attention to women's health. We're no longer fungible or easily replaced and we need to pay taxes for longer and there won't be pensions to support the 'human support services' who've worked part time to facilitate childcare and caring for family members. We'll need to perm working fulltime, working part-time until we're older, and caring for others, so we need to be kept on our feet. Not least because there won't be social services to look after us.