As today is International Women’s Day, we at ScreenMe have written a blog on the gender health care gap, in line with this year’s hashtag of #EmbraceEquity.

Gender equality and movement towards this is so important for the benefit of the whole of society! So, we hope this gives a little more information on some of the challenges we are facing. We are all going to have to work together if this is something that we are going to achieve — so the time to start is now! 

So, what is the gender health gap? 

Studies have shown that a gender is a key axis of inequality in healthcare. In general, men are more likely to have better care and outcomes than those of other genders. For this article, we will focus on the gender of women as a comparison point – but we are aware that many other genders are also discriminated against, particularly in healthcare. 

Gender is just one of the ways in which people are structurally discriminated against in healthcare, with other influences including race, ethnicity, ability, and more. In light of International Women’s Day, we will focus on the differences between men and women in this article – however, we are aware that there are multiple layers to inequality. 

What does this mean? 

This means that women are neglected the whole way through healthcare — right the way from research and data, all the way through to care and support. 

Let’s start at the beginning… 

Drugs and treatments must go through extensive trials and tests before they are deemed fit to be on the market and sold to consumers. However, you would be shocked to know how little research is actually done on female outcomes. 

Women’s bodies are often harder to study, due to our menstrual cycle causing fluctuating levels of hormones in our bodies. These changes in hormone levels means women often respond differently to drugs at different parts of their cycle. With much research seeking to minimise costs and time spent — women’s bodies are deemed as too difficult to consider, and so they simply aren’t studied. 

Despite this issue being highlighted more than a decade ago, when a study of over 700 journals found only 28% to include women at all, this is still a big problem, with this percentage only rising to 49% in 2019. 

Different genders have different reactions to drugs

It seems like a simple statement. The same drug will obviously work slightly differently in different bodies. But why does this matter? Well, if drugs have been tested on and made for male bodies, it is clear that they will benefit men more. This may not seem like the end of the world, but it really can have dangerous impacts on female health. For example, aspirin is often seen to be a good drug for reducing the risk of heart disease. However, in women there is often a lack of benefit and can even be harmful for their health. This begs the question as to what other medical advice women receive on a daily basis that could actually be harming their health, rather than improving it.  

How the intangible can have very tangible effects… 

Women are less likely to be listened to and heard by healthcare professionals, practitioners and workers. For example, a US study found that women with acute pain were less likely than men to receive painkillers than men. In the UK, women are less likely to go to the GP, receive less health monitoring and take more medication that could potentially harm their health. 

Everyday discrimination against or dismissal of women is often swept under the carpet by women themselves and the rest of society. Women often internalise feelings of being mistreated by healthcare professionals for a variety of reasons including — they are just used to it, they don’t want to seem ungrateful, they feel intimidated, and a million other reasons. But, this is a silent killer. Women’s health is not seen as a priority and they are suffering because of it, which is something that absolutely must start to change.  

This is why ScreenMe was created 

We want to close the gender health gap in every single sense.

Our mission at ScreenMe is to create a space for women to receive personalised advice and recommendations based on their own bodies; but also, to feel heard, listened to and cared for by our expert team and community. 

We empower women to take back control of their health with science-backed, natural solutions which they can enact in their day-to-day lives. Testing allows us to create bespoke plans for you, while our free consultation with every package allows you to share your goals, needs and concerns — so that you finally have ownership in your own health care. 

If you would like to know more, then head over to our main site! 

Jessica Hobbis