When it comes to health, women and men are not quite wired the same way. There is obviously the uterus, the ovaries, the motherhood and the breasts for them. The prostate and the testicles for them. But in reality, it goes way beyond. Yes, there is sex, hormones, sexual characteristics … the biological component. But there is also the genre. There, we are no longer in social and cultural construction. And that too has an impact on our health and care journey.
For example, INSERM tells us that men tend to consult more tard as women. And also that the relationship between the doctor and his patient (or his patient) is influenced, in part and often unconsciously, by representations linked to gender.
The fragile and sensitive woman who expresses herself more willingly, on the one hand, the manly man who resists pain, on the other. Clichés have a hard life. Besides, we’re talking about gender stereotypes, Yes that’s it. And it can go a long way. Like the more acceptable idea that tobacco and alcohol are consumed more by men. Or that women are more prone to depression. It doesn’t mean that men are spared. On the other hand, they speak less easily and also have a different way of manifesting their symptoms, through risky behavior or alcohol consumption, for example.
Heart attack, osteoporosis: misdiagnosed women
What we understand, in medicine, is that to caricature too much, to compartmentalize too much, we end up missing part of the target. Two very concrete examples. For a long time, it was said that the infarction mainly affects middle-aged men and that it manifests itself in severe pain in the chest, which can radiate to the arm. It’s true, but during all that time we weren’t so interested in women and misdiagnosed them.
When they arrived with chest pain, they were diagnosed with anxiety attack, they were treated with anxiolytics. This poses another concern: the delay in diagnosis. A man with chest pain: he was sent directly to the cardiologist. But women can have very different symptoms. Not necessarily this pain in the chest but a difficulty in breathing, digestive disorders, great fatigue … And that has only been communicated for a few years, both for women and for caregivers.
Another example : osteoporosis. Usually presented as a disease of postmenopausal women. A little cartoonish, there too. INSERM reminds us that a third of femoral neck fractures in men are linked to osteoporosis. And they have just as much risk of a woman getting a second fracture.
We could also talk about the risk of stroke, immunity, the relationship to pain, the functioning of the brain. Research is now more interested in these gender differences, and that’s good news. But there is still a long way to go, in terms of gender and health!
