Letter: Women’s Health Equality

Up until the1980s research studies consisted of study participants who were mostly white men, generally aged 30 to 55. These studies were adequate for their time, and most medical providers considered them applicable to all men and women, as well as all ethnic groups. Time and further study proved this assumption to be dangerously incorrect.

One example is the study of heart disease, which was thought to be a man’s disease. It was discovered that there were, in fact, gender-specific patterns of heart disease. Something as basic as how a woman presented with heart attack symptoms or how early she could manifest these symptoms was very different from a male.

For example, a white male might typically clutch his chest and note pain in the mid-back, neck, and down the left arm, whereas a white woman may only feel fatigue or nausea. A woman who has polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition of the female ovaries that affects female hormones, could develop diabetes and high cholesterol, putting her at risk for heart disease in her forties.

Other diseases and conditions that manifest sex differences include, cancer, diabetes, infectious disease and substance abuse disorders and disorders of female/male reproductive tracts. Federal funding cuts to research institutions will likely adversely affect these studies.

Women are acutely aware of the need to maintain health. Health decisions that involve contraception and reproduction are a personal choice in the same way that testosterone replacement and vasectomy sterilization are for a man. Deciding to become pregnant is not only a decision about starting a family; it is a decision about health.

Diabetes or high blood pressure are two examples of diseases that could develop during pregnancy. A woman’s body is not an object that should involve community decision-making. Women are biological and psychological beings with rights, yet decisions about women’s health continue to be made in a way that perpetuates treating women as an owned commodity.  

Legislative decisions in many states permit legal actions against women because their bodies could not sustain a pregnancy. There is a current federal bill that will further limit contraception, reproductive rights, and hormonal care on a national level. The decision to use contraception may have everything to do with perimenstrual pain and nothing to do with avoiding pregnancy.

A dilatation and curettage ( D and C) may save a woman’s life and have nothing to do with a pregnancy. Decisions that involve medical care should be between women and their physicians/ health care providers. 

Women deserve to choose a life of their making. They deserve the right to a healthy life and an economic future equal to men. Most importantly, women deserve the right to bodily autonomy, that is, the right to make decisions about their life and health without fear of legal repercussions.

Sincerely,

Marita Florini

Endicott, N.Y.