Building on the last post – which was already quite long -, I would like to delve a bit into a related topic. There are many issues in the health care sector globally, e.g. working conditions, efficiency and economic pressures, focusing on treating symptoms instead of preventing and curing people (healthy lifestyles are not profitable for neither processed food producers, fast food chains nor big pharma), etc. What I want to focus on is the still structural neglection of female bodies.
Maybe this is slowly changing, but the doses of many drugs are calculated for ‘standard’ male bodies. This is generally difficult because what is a ‘standard’ body anyways? Fatally, it mostly leads to pharmaceutical products often being overdosed for the on average smaller female bodies.
And there are many diseases which are less well-known and communicated about – even amongst doctors – that are often related to female bodies. The most infamous example might be endometriosis. This is a disease “in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. It can cause severe pain in the pelvis and make it harder to get pregnant” as the World Health Organization states here which “affects roughly 10% (190 million) of reproductive age women and girls globally”. This number could even be higher because it is often not diagnosed as many doctors and even gynaecologists are often not aware of it. So, it is very likely to at least someone you know has this disease – if they know it or not, and if they told you or not (coming back to the topic of taboos).
I have read about the disease already some years ago. And recently, I heard more about it by affected people directly. One important take-away from these conversations – next to learning about their struggles and unhelpful societal mechanisms, including research funding – for me was the following: If you are a woman* yourself, have women* around you which you care about and especially when you are in the medical sector, don’t just accept it as a given that menstruation has to hurt (a lot). As soon as some person has any kind of pain in this part of the body and with their period in general, have it checked by a specialist (this also includes people in naturopathy, or start to talk about it with a midwife you trust). Even without endometriosis and other diseases, many women* complain about pain but this is not natural, and we all should not accept it as unchangeable fate! With endometriosis it is even more important to have it checked! Not everyone will be able to free themselves of their pain, but for most at least a reduction is possible.
A related topic is contraception and the implications of the hormonal pill which are very rarely communicated. The pill is rather easily distributed by gynaecologists – although it is always disturbing the natural hormonal cycle – and there is little information provided on alternatives. It’s also kind of unfair that through the ‘normal’ fact of many women taking the pill, they are kind of ‘responsible’ for contraception although they are not the only party involved, and also they have to bear the consequences when something goes wrong. I am not saying women shouldn’t take care of contraception but try to find good advice on which way to do it. There are alternatives with different benefits depending on your relationship situation and your stage in life.
Be aware of what happens around you and communicate with others. I hope that humankind will come closer to ‘perfect health’ for all which is a principle in Ayurveda and at least start by taking diseases seriously, including these which concern women more than men. This is a question of justice and equality.
Source of header image: Bild von Cristiano Rodrigues Cris Rodrigues auf Pixabay
Catha goes sustainable 