Women’s Health: An Umbrella term we use to only Cover our Heads

When the topic of women’s health is discussed, the dominant narrative surrounding the subject is restricted to topics within the realm of reproductive services. Although incredibly vital, a woman’s body is not simply constructed around reproductive organs including the vagina, ovaries, uterus, etc. In today’s political agenda, it is not uncommon to associate women’s health, a very broad and encompassing term, with strictly reproductive health care services such as abortion and birth control access. In turn, this insinuates a diverse, political climate associated to the subject of women’s health due to the current polarized issues within reproductive health care.

Reproductive Health plays a role IN Women’s Health

Vanity Fair, 2017

The Trump Administration has made their positions on abortion, accessible birth control, and other reproductive services incredibly clear-- they are either against it or lack the care to make change, and I am not sure entirely sure which of the two is worse. President Trump continuously nominates people in high power who are against reproductive freedom such as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, and Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. As if these nominations did not prove his intentions clearly enough, he once stated that there “should be some sort of punishment” for women who seek abortions (NARAL, 2018). He even went as far to say that Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and health counseling on a plethora of women’s health related issues regardless of a woman’s socioeconomic status, race, religion, etc., “is like an abortion factory, frankly” (NARAL, 2018). Frankly, I believe President Trump’s anti-woman agenda is once again another instance in which systematic oppression plays yet another role in health care policies and education.

Planned Parenthood, 2018

Due to defunding for nonprofit organizations such as Planned Parenthood, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for women to access birth control, specifically women of color and women of lower socioeconomic status. The Trump administration recently rolled back on the birth control mandate, which now grants employers the right to deny women insurance coverage for contraception (Pear, 2017) and offers religious freedom as a way to deny coverage to certain groups, which may insinuate direct restrictions on the civil rights of the LGBTQPAI+ community.

These topics are very important within the discourse of women’s health, however it is important to note that women’s health is not simply reproductive health. In fact, according to the CDC the leading causes of death of females in the United States are heart disease (22.3%), cancer (21.1%), chronic lower respiratory diseases (6.2%), stroke (6.1%), and Alzheimer’s disease (5.7%) (2015). Among the top 10 reasons, none of them are directly associated with reproductive organs or services. These issues are not commonly associated with the narrative of Women’s Health, and yet they are what is killing women in the United States. Unfortunately, if you were to Google the definition of “women’s health” is it very difficult to come to a consensus of a standard definition. So I decided to define “health” instead, which according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the condition of being sound in body, mind, and spirit”, ”the general condition of the body”, and “a condition in which someone or something is thriving or doing well” (2018). Nowhere in the definition of “health” do we specify bodily organs or parts, instead it is the general state of the body. What is difficult to understand is why when “women” are added to create our topic of discussion, women’s health, we typically focus on women’s reproductive organs and little else. By restricting the definition of women’s health to strictly reproductive health, it leaves women susceptible to other poor health outcomes, while putting an emphasis on the politicization and standardization of the woman body.

Why is knowing Women’s Health is more than just reproductive health important?

It is extremely important to recognize how systematic oppression plays a large role in the health care system and its education of their doctors. The health care system was created as an institution stemming from the patriarchal system. In turn, medicine and science orbits around the standard of the white, male body. In the United States, “women are less likely than men to survive the years after a heart attack, even after accounting for age” (Yong, 2018). Women’s heart attack symptoms present differently from the standard symptoms we all think of when we hear “heart attack”. Typically, we think of severe pain in the left arm, tightness in your jaw, neck, and chest, and severe shortness of breath-- all symptoms usually associated with a male having a heart attack. We have created a standard of symptoms such as this, where we do not take into account the effects of gender on different medical disorders, and instead idealize the male reaction. Due to this, the leading cause of death in women in the United States is due to heart disease (CDC, 2015). Moreover, another interesting study showed that women are more likely to survive a heart attack if they are being treated by a female doctor (Yong, 2018). Yong addressed this subject by also adding on that “overall, the team found that female physicians outperformed their male colleagues, and that their patients were, on the whole, more likely to live” (2018). Is this because female doctors have to prove themselves more so than men do in medical school and on the job? Is this because there are, overall, fewer practicing female doctors than men? Or is this because females feel the need to downplay their pain in front of male doctors? Regardless of the answer, it is something incredibly important in the discourse of Women’s health, however it is often overlooked.

Overall, the need to integrate gender perspective into medicine is becoming increasingly more necessary. When people think of a female’s doctors, they are automatically drawn to the gynecologists and obstetricians because of this emphasis in women’s health on the reproductive system. However, a female’s doctor is not just a doctor that specializes in medicine in respect to the reproductive system. If you were a woman suffering from chest pains, you definitely would not want to call your gynecologist. A female’s doctor is going to include primary care physicians, emergency room doctors, neurologists, cardiologist, etc. Instead of focusing on a standard of care that perpetuates the idealization of the male body, physicians and medical students should be introduced to all types of bodies-- female, transgender, transsexual, intersex, etc., in order to provide equal care across all bodies.

“Women’s health” and “reproductive health” are not interchangeable terms. Women’s health is a term that encompasses mental and physical well being among all individuals who identify as female. Reproductive health is extremely important in women’s health, but to focus solely on reproductive health is dangerous especially when the white, male body is a standard of education and care within the medical system. We created umbrella terms such as these to be able to cover the whole body, not just the reproductive organs.

Referred to the following readings from class:

Yong, Ed. “Women More Likely to Survive Heart Attacks If Treated by Female Doctors.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Aug. 2018. 

DUSENBERY, MAYA. DOING HARM: the Truth about How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed,... Misdiagnosed, and Sick. HARPERONE, 2019.

Additional Material:

“Donald Trump on Reproductive Freedom.” NARAL Pro-Choice America, 2018, www.prochoiceamerica.org/laws-policy/federal-government/donald-trump-abortion/.

“Health Equity.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 Apr. 2018, www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/2015/index.htm#modalIdString_CDCTable_0.

Pear, Robert, et al. “Trump Administration Rolls Back Birth Control Mandate.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/us/politics/trump-contraception-birth-control.html.