Women and Health-Why Women Ignore Their Health?

Why do women give the least priority to their health?

Mala is a thirty-year-old housewife who is juggling looking after her one-year-old daughter, doing household chores, and taking care of her in-laws and her husband. She was married at the age of 25, before that she was disciplined about her exercise and diet regime. But after marriage, she hardly gets time to exercise. She needs to be ready at 8 am so that she could serve breakfast to her father-in-law, then prepare tiffin for her husband and send him off at 9 am. This requires her to be in the kitchen at 7 am and this does not leave her with enough time to do her exercise. Now that she has a daughter it has become impossible for her to think of her health. Though she knows only proper exercise, diet and rest can give her mental and physical health yet she has never made other family members aware of her needs and this has become a routine for all.

Nancy is forty years old and she works as an assistant manager in an IT company. Though her mother-in-law looks after her two kids, she hardly gets time to go for the morning walk that she has been planning for many days. Preparing breakfast and planning for the dinner, making a list of items needed at home and those that needed to be replenished. Getting up at 5.30 am and finishing the work from the office, is her usual routine.

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There are many stories of women who have given up health as their priority. Minal is in her middle age. All of a sudden she finds herself alone, her kids and husband are busy, and her in-laws are gone. The insecurity of being lonely begins to haunt her and her health further deteriorates. A few years go by in accepting the fact that she has to live for herself now. So she again starts taking care of herself. It is difficult initially with lots of lifestyle ailments and getting habituated to keeping her healthy and giving time to herself. Does a woman require attaining an age before she starts thinking for herself? What prevents a woman from taking care of her health?

Who Is Responsible?

There are many households where women are not given equal rights in the decision-making affairs of the family. She does not even have the right to speak in such matters in many cases. A woman has limited autonomy in life decisions making even when it comes to sexual and reproductive life. This impacts her thought process and she becomes inadequate in taking decisions for her health and setting her priorities. When the point comes in her life where she realizes that she has to exist without thinking of others, she is not able to cope with it.

“Women have been woefully neglected in studies on pain. Most of our understanding of ailments comes from the perspective of men; it is overwhelmingly based on studies of men, carried out by men,” says Lynn Enright, a London-based journalist and author of the book, Vagina: A Re-education.

There is a lack of studies and research in regard to women's health. This is a serious problem; diseases that afflict half of the world’s population are under-researched. According to an article published in The Guardian- less than 2.5% of publicly funded research is dedicated solely to reproductive health, despite the fact that one in three women in the UK will suffer from a reproductive or gynecological health problem. There is five times more research into erectile dysfunction, which affects 19% of men, than into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women.

In India, women in rural areas do not have access to proper healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth. Still, the practice of women eating at last after all other family members are served is prevalent in many households. Eating leftover after serving other family members leave them with an inadequate supply of protein, iron, and multivitamins. Whatever a person eats affects their

overall health. Anemia is the leading cause of maternal death in India. Girls are not given an adequate diet in adolescence so they are likely to suffer from adulthood diseases.

According to National Family Health Survey 4, adolescent girls (age 15-19) are far more anemic (54%) than adolescent boys (29%). It has been found in 139 districts that more than 40% of women of reproductive age are anemic. Various schemes (Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojna, Pradhanmantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, Anemia Mukt Bharat, etc.) are undertaken by the government to tackle healthcare issues suffered by women of India but we need to understand that they are not enough to eradicate these issues. Society needs to understand and start educating each household member about the importance of women's health. The neglect of the health of women in their houses is having repercussions economically.

“Communities and countries and ultimately the world is only as strong as the health of their women.” -Michelle Obama

According to WHO, data indicates strong associations between gender-based violence and mental health. Violence in women’s life is associated with their stress-related syndromes and mental health problems. A study from India on schizophrenic patients found that married men were likely to be cared for and financially supported by their wives, while married women were more likely to be deserted,

abandoned, or divorced by their husbands, and to have experienced physical abuse by their husbands

before separation.

Women keep ignoring their health till a medical emergency comes up. If they start monitoring their health and go for regular check-ups then many diseases can be detected early and treated successfully. Some of the major health issues women face when she is in perimenopause age are breast cancer, heart diseases, osteoporosis, diabetes, thyroid, and high cholesterol. A healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and regular exercise along with being aware of the diseases can help in curbing these diseases.

Women play a pivotal role in maintaining the health of their families, so they need to make their health a priority. Without maintaining their health it is impossible to build a healthy society. Remember, a healthy woman makes a healthy society.