Women's Health Neglected: Heart Attack Disparities Revealed - Research Paper

Introduction

The gender biases in today's medical systems have brought severe and fatal repercussions, particularly in women. A study conducted in 2000 by the New England Journal of Medicine discovered that women pass through suffering seven times more than men when they are diagnosed and discharged after having a heart attack (Umar, 2004). The reason behind this concept is that various diseases are based on male psychology and even if women portray have the same condition, most of them end up getting heart attacks. The essay will elaborate more on pain in women particularly in treatment and disparities.

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Throughout the world, most women that are in severe pain usually receive sedative medicine prescriptions than the usual pain killers for ailment. According to a survey conducted, it discovered that women who when through the coronary bypass surgery, only half were given pain killer when the comparison was made with men (Handberg & Limacher, 2013). In the U.S for instance, most women had to wait for 65 minutes before they were given analgesic to due to the acute abdominal pain while the men only waited for 49 minutes. When the issue of chronic pain is addressed, it was discovered that 70% of women were affected. 80% of the pain study was either conducted to human men or male mice (Handberg & Limacher, 2013). A few studies have also revealed that women felt more pain than pain due to their biology and hormone structures.

For many years, the experience of women has always been overlooked and assumed on the doctor's office and in scientific and medical research. For instance, diseases that affected women such as fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, and various pain conditions have always been under searched and this left most doctors to lack proper understanding on how to proceed with treatment (Handberg & Limacher, 2013). The majority of doctors also dismissed women's accounts thus creating a 'trust gap' that ends up affecting the health of women in adverse ways.

New insights that emerged showed that the well-being of women has always been hampered due to gender disparities. The study also showed that most women were exposed to a host of conditions because of inequalities and how critical relevant information was released to the public for those in psychology, research sciences, and medicine (Handberg & Limacher, 2013). Another study noticed that women were less likely to be given CPR when compared to men to show that that was the only short shrift they were given in the industry and this made their pain to be serially misdiagnosed.

The National Institute of Health and the American Heart Association discovered that 39% of women that had a heart attack while in public and were given CPR have fewer chances to survive than men. The reason behind this is that most rescuers fear touching women's breasts or their clothes. For stereotypes patients, men had fewer health problems and were less attuned to symptoms when compared to women, and this made them visit the women regularly. In short, women are hysterical hypochondriacs while women are silent stoics.

A report released by the U.D government showed that most women claimed that they were in poor health and had the chances of dying with five years. However, this did not emphasize whey they needed treatment. The Maryland University on the other hand who were analyzing gender biasness discovered that women who were in pain were given sedatives as compared to men who were given pain killers. This showed that women were inadequately treated by healthcare providers when compared to men (Guess, Malek, Anderson, Makrides, & Zhou, 2017). Various authors that attributed to this claim also added that the culture regarding women was limited.

It was evident that women experience higher musculoskeletal pain than men both in treatment and community because they respond differently to a treatment. In most cases, the word 'sex' is used in many surveys to talk about biological sex and not the gender because most laboratory environments reveal that women take the name females. This makes it easy to measure the consistency of pain in women.

Many clinical studies also reveal that the reason why women use the dosage type of medicine is that they avoid analgesic medication. Basic research has also shown that there is a significant influence that links the pain rehabilitation packages and that of women. Regarding the extent of the sex differences, the study also found out that psychological factors contribute to pain in women (Guess et al., 2017). For instance, surveys done have shown that anxiety is high in men as compared to women. This means that women were more depressed than men. Men also reported having the lower psychological and physical quality of life than women due to challenges of anxiety-like kinesiophobia.

Rehabilitation and clinically relevant measures are applied to sexes especially those that have rehabilitation differences. Such variations may also be used to make decisions allocate patients and assess them into various packages meant for their needs based on their sex. It is now clear that women have a tumultuous and specific relationship with pain when the comparison is made with men (Guess et al., 2017). Harvard Health blog did research and discovered that the experience women go through when it comes to the treatment of pain lies under the frustrations because of what they have to undergo when they are diagnosed.

Pain in women is labeled as psychological and not physical but is not taken with the same severity and seriousness as what men receive. This claim was first seen on history when women were not clinically presented in trials of pain but just checked through regular calls for record purposes. In other words, a lot of assumptions were made to the point that women were more excluded than men (Guess et al., 2017). The pain contrast in treatment between men and women is also discovered in research done that showed that approximately 2,400 women that had chronic pain received different treatment from the same doctors because of their sex.

Since many societies always dismiss women's pain and often have a brief record when it comes to women, it is surprising that most of them that undergo chronic illnesses are not treated immediately. An excellent example is seen in one study that revealed how women who have acute illnesses and are in emergency rooms had lower chances of being given painkillers than men. The study discovered that most of them even waited longer before been seen by the doctors.

Another survey conducted the same year revealed that when women had emergency cases, doctors were less concerned as to when men are admitted. In 2014 for instance, A&E women who lived in Sweden waited longer before they saw the doctor. Most of their cases were also classified as not being urgent (Guess et al., 2017). In 2018 in France, a female developed severe pain, and upon being taken to the emergency room due to abdominal pain, the doctor responded that one day she will still die like everyone else. After five hours of waiting to be treated at the emergency room, the lady got a stroke and died.

When women are in pain, they are usually given anti-anxiety medicines instead of pain killers as opposed to men. Most of them end up being nicknamed psychiatric patients, and this made their ailments to be diagnosed wrongly. In this case, while most of them are often referred to as a psychiatrist or psychologist, men were tested to rule out their conditions (Guess et al., 2017). The assumption in this was that women always complained than men and that is why no one takes their case seriously. In the UK, for instance, the rate at which men consulted the GP was 32% which was slightly higher than that of women.

There is a possibility that doctors dismissed the reports of women with the assumptions that women often complain about the same pain. The meta-analysis released by the study also showed that the two strains that made women always to visit the doctor were the back pain and headache (Guess et al., 2017). Evidence released showed that women tend to go to the hospital faster than men even if they have weak signals. Similarly, another study also showed that women had fewer chances of consulting the GP even if they portray the same symptoms.

Many doctors and researchers have pointed out that from 1972 to 2003women experience more lower pain tolerance as compared to men either through encouragements or cultural gender norms. The same study revealed that symptoms presented by women came from anxiety and this made them more prone to being addicted to opioids. Due to dole out anti-anxiety prescriptions, most women end up taking other painkillers because they are anxious the pain may become tolerant (Guess et al., 2017). The only way they might get their fear and anxiety under control is when they take medicines prescribed for pain relief. Another way these complications become server is when it alters the response to pain killers and perception of pain. This means that due to the differences in pain, women tend to receive a different treatment due to the personalized approach.

Conclusion

Today's medical systems have brought severe and fatal repercussions when it comes to treating women. The reason behind this concept is that various diseases are based on male psychology and even if women portray have the same condition, most of them end up getting heart attacks. Many clinical studies also reveal that the reason why women use the dosage type of medicine is that they avoid analgesic medication. For instance, diseases that affected women such as fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, and various pain conditions have always been under searched and this left most doctors to lack proper understanding on how to proceed with treatment.

In the U.S for instance, most women had to wait for 65 minutes before they were given analgesic to due to the acute abdominal pain while the men only waited for 49 minutes. When women are in pain, they are usually given anti-anxiety medicines instead of pain killers as opposed to men. Many doctors and researchers have also pointed out that from 1972 to 2003women experience more lower pain tolerance as compared to men either through encouragements or cultural gender norms. The only way they might get their fear and anxiety under control is when they take medicines prescribed for pain relief. However, there is a possibility that doctors dismissed the reports of women with the assumptions that women often complain about the same pain. This means that due to the differences in pain, women tend to receive a different treatment due to the personalized approach.

Another survey conducted the same year revealed that when women had emergency cases, doctors were less concerned as to when men are admitted. Since many societies always dismiss women's pain and often have a brief record when it comes to women, it is surprising that most of them that undergo chronic illnesses are not treated immediately. In other words, a lot of assumptions were made to the point that women were more excluded than men. Most of them end up being nicknamed psychiatric patients, and this made their ailments to be misdiagnosed. Many clinical studies also reveal that the reason why women use the dosage type of medicine is that they avoid analgesic medication. In 2018 in France, a female developed severe pain, and upon being taken to the emergency room due to abdominal pain, the doctor responded that one day she will still die like everyone else.

References

Guess, K., Malek, L., Anderson, A., Makrides, M., & Zhou, S. J. (2017). Knowledge and practices regarding iodine supplementation: A national survey of healthcare providers. Women and Birth, 30(1). doi: 10.1016/j.wombi.2016.08.007

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