Sex matters as much as gender. Sex differences still have an impact on the health of our populations. Despite an increased enrolment of women and the beginnings of understanding sex differences, very little has moved to explore these issues in the last three decades. Most clinical studies still do not include sex-specific analyses. It’s enough to keep […]
Category: Women’s health
Excess prescribing of pharmaceuticals is a nightmare for both patients and prescribers. It’s much easier to add one medication after another than to take a patient off any. After all, if one is good, aren’t two or three better? And in countries that lack robust primary care, multiple specialists may prescribe multiple medications without any cross referencing. […]
Women are women and men are men – for the most part. Ovaries and testes can be removed, and hormones blocked or supplemented but it doesn’t change the genetic makeup of our cells. Well not yet at least. So, people born with an XY chromosome have different potentials and responses to disease and treatments than […]
Now that COVID protocols are easing and face-to-face consultations with our regular physicians are returning, it is a good time for doctors and patients to refresh their commitment to the same vows of care. It is a well-studied adage that patients and doctors are not congruent in their views about what should happen during their […]
In the acute phase, men with COVID experience more severe symptoms and higher mortality than women. In that way COVID is no different from many of the viruses that have attacked humans over the last century. The health of women is not just women’s health Men are more attractive to viral infections than women. For example, […]
Time to spin some wishes into reality. Here is my top ten, in no particular order. Share yours in the comments box. Science never turns into science fiction, nor medical evidence twisted into medical factoid. COVID vaccination rates globally reach at least 90%. COVID continues to morph into another influenza – like illness. Public health units […]
Last month I presented two virtual sessions at the Harvard Leadership program for women in the health professions. This is a sold-out event, mainly because of the hard work of Dr. Julie Silver and her team. I have been involved for several years and every year I have found the engagement of the audience increasing. Given the […]
Vaccines are the best news to emerge from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid and successful deployment of the new vaccines offers a way to limit the devastating effects of the pandemic – for men at least. Unfortunately, the recent reports of thromboembolic events (clotting) may raise new concerns amongst the unvaccinated. These reports initiated with vaccines […]
Every couple of years a group of experts lowers the level of blood pressure required to diagnose and treat hypertension. On the face of it, the advice seems reasonable: obesity and diabetes are on the increase across the globe and both are related to hypertension and its result, cardiovascular disease. So, dropping the upper limits […]
There are still not enough women in high level leadership positions in healthcare to cement change which improves the health inequalities for women. Two contradictions hold back many women who try. These are encompassed in what I call reticence. The qualities of nurturing and maintaining harmony keep women feeling comfortable in the thinking of middle […]
Should women use reproductive hormones? There is growing evidence of higher risk, yet little research is happening to study alternatives to oral contraception or HRT (hormone replacement therapy). Why aren’t researchers and clinicians talking about the risks of continuous use of reproductive hormones by women throughout their life cycle? More than a decade ago, a […]
Worldwide, the health of refugee women is in jeopardy. Conflict and dislocation disproportionately affect women, who already experience proportionately greater challenges in accessing health services for themselves. Refugee women’s health care is still focussed on an antiquated view of women as child bearers and rearers. Most of the health problems of displaced women are intertwined with […]
In an environment where at least one in every two female clinicians has experienced some kind of sexual harassment during her working life, developing educational programs to change the culture don’t and won’t work. There just isn’t enough money or time or will. Besides, too much time and money continue to be wasted in exposing […]
Does legislation really make a difference to the health of women? A quarter of a century ago, the USA legislated in the Women’s Health Equity Act to remove the inequalities between men and women in medical research. More recently, Health Canada recommended comparative studies in healthy male and/or female volunteers to minimize variability. Nonetheless, nothing has really […]
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