It can be argued women are the backbone of families, communities, and society as a whole. We provide care and support, nurture our families, and still play a primary role in the care of children, our spouses and our ageing parents.
However, when we dig under the surface of healthcare in the UK, there is an undeniable and unacceptable imbalance in health equity specific to female based care.
The UK is thought to have the largest female health gap among G20 countries, and the 12th largest globally, with eight out of ten women in the UK feel they’re not listened to by healthcare professionals.
The reality of the gender health gap
Healthcare systems have historically been designed with men as the default patient, both in clinical practice and medical research.
For decades we have known that, biologically, women have different medical needs to men as we are subject to different hormonal pathways which play a significant role in how our bodies operate, the symptoms we show, and how we react to different medication and treatment options. Yet still the odds are stacked against us.
The classic example often given is heart attack symptoms; women are much more likely to get fewer commonly known symptoms and sometimes even the absence of obvious chest discomfort.
With women being underrepresented, including being excluded from many clinical trials in the past, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment outcomes are not clearly understood. The question raised here is – will this really change any time soon?
The longer term impact
Females make up 51 per cent of the UK population so, why are we not doing more and empowering women to take more control over their health on a global scale?