Promote health care with a gender perspective. That is the objective of the experts who have participated in the meeting organized by Organon on the occasion of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, which will be celebrated on May 28.
Trinidad Herreroprofessor of Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Murcia and member of the Royal National Academy of Medicine, has assured that Circumstances and reactions to diseases in men and women are different and yet, “all the data from the preclinical studies are, from the biological point of view, from men.”
“Women’s health is underdiagnosed because they have signs and symptoms that are not attributed to men,” clarified Herrero, who added that if there is underdiagnosis there is also undertreatment. Something that supposes a great problem since, “the earlier many treatments begin, the course of the disease will be different”.
Thus, the professor has stated that medicine “must be centered on the person”, knowing their personal, economic and social circumstances because “the disease will evolve depending on these circumstances.” In this sense, he has ensured that Primary Care professionals, “who closely follow patients and the course of their illness”, must understand medicine from this not-so-new vision of considering the circumstances of the person and not only of pathology.
Women, without representation in rehearsals
“It is evident that women and men are different; we have different genes and that supposes a series of essential differences in physiology”, he has agreed Hector Good, coordinator of the Cardiovascular Research Area of the Hospital 12 de Octubre and researcher at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), who has explained women’s health from a biological perspective. This does, according to Bueno, that the response of women to drugs is “biologically conditioned to be different” than that of men.
This different response to the treatments or the greater uncertainty in the response is due to the fact that “women are underrepresented in clinical trials“. “Normally, only the parameters for men are used,” the cardiologist pointed out, so the dosage of treatment in women “is usually excessive” and causes intoxications and adverse reactions to be more common in them.
Sociocultural factors that influence health
Factors such as sociocultural aspects also influence health. Jose Maria Bledasociologist expert in social determinants of health and professor of Sociology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, has listed some: economic income, professional occupation, habitat where they live, origin, educational level…
Los economic income they determine “whether one is going to live longer or not, the quality of life one is going to have, accessibility to services or the possibility of treatment”. And, according to Bleda, there is a “feminization of poverty or the increased risk of poverty”, which translates into an increased risk of disease.
Refering to professional occupation, the sociologist has pointed out that it is women who usually have the most precarious jobs. In this population group there are also more layoffs and not as many women as men are promoted within the company. “Occupational health is one of the unsolved problems in our country”, he lamented.
Regarding the social factors, Bleda has clarified that it refers to the prevailing values of society. “These values are so internalized that women assume them. They take care of the house, of the children, of their elders… And it entails an imbalance, stress and other pathologies linked to these roles”, she clarified.
On the other hand, Trinidad Herrero has highlighted the need to influence education within the family and schools, since the factor cultural it is “internalized from birth”.
In addition, Herrero regrets that there is no gender medicine subject in Spain, as there is in Austria. “In general, there are no gender medicine chairs and the difference between men and women regarding diseases is not transmitted to students. What is not taught, is not learned and is not applied“, has exposed.
Definitely, Cristina Alzina, Executive Director of Business at Organon Spain, has highlighted that “women represent 50 percent of the world’s population, so it is essential that our state of health is optimal”. Thus, she has pointed out that from the company, they have launched different ways to improve the comprehensive health of womensuch as “the search for innovation and the promotion of health care with gender perspective“.
“We believe that By improving knowledge about women’s health needs, we will be one step closer to achieving a healthy society for all.“, Alzina has concluded.