By CARSON HOLTON AND CHERALYN BARRINGTON, Staff Writer
When many are asked what the leading cause of death for females in America is, their first guess is breast cancer. However, this is not the case. At the Women’s Health: Then & Now panel discussion, the audience was informed that the deadliest disease is actually heart disease. The presentation took place on March 10, 2011 in Selby Auditorium, and was in celebration of Women’s History Month. The speech addressed health issues that have plagued women for decades, health improvements, and health areas that could still use improvement.
The first person to speak in the panel discussion was Dr. Rhonda Waddell who presented information about the Victorian era of women’s health, and also explored modern issues of health. Waddell explained how much health progress has been made. For instance, in America during the Victorian Era, an average of 8.5 women died every week from childbirth in the 1850s. That average increased to 12 women by the 1890s. Now, the average childbirth mortality is about one per week. In the mid 1800s, maternity hospitals hadn’t been created and not much emphasis was placed on women’s maternity health.
There was also an issue with sanitation. Doctors didn’t understand the importance of washing their hands between caring for each patient. They spread disease from patient to patient, and pregnant women were particularly susceptible to illness. Many people also died from Cholera, which is an infection causing severe dehydration and diarrhea. People got cholera from consuming contaminated food and water. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes helped to put an end to many infections and diseases by realizing that people needed to wash their hands between handling potentially hazardous material. This greatly reduced deaths for both pregnant women and the general population. After Dr. Wendell Holmes’ discovery, there was a higher standard of living and sanitation regulations were put in place.
Two of the many influential women in the Victorian era that were mentioned in the first presentation were Jane Addams and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Jane Addams fought for women’s rights by creating a building called the Hull House. In the Victorian era, women were typically suppressed by men, so women lacked education which could inform them about sanitation principles or their rights as citizens. At the Hull House, women learned how to take care of themselves by understanding their rights, and by taking the right precautions to stay healthy. Ida B. Wells-Barnett pushed for rights for black women and created a settlement house. Unfortunately, she is not as well known as Addams due to her having been black in a time of extreme racism. These two women paved the way for other females to speak out about women’s health issues. Famous females who currently share their experiences or advocate awareness of women’s health concerns include Christina Applegate, Brooke Shields, and Alicia Keys. Christina Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, but was fortunate enough to catch it early. She speaks about the importance of women getting checked for breast cancer. Brooke Shields suffered from post-partum depression and became unable to care for her baby after it was born. She shared her experience to educate other women on mental health issues such as Post-Partum Depression. Mental health is under-resourced and often neglected. Alicia Keys lost a close friend to HIV/AIDS, and now advocates for the fight against the disease.
The 2nd speaker of the night, Dr. Audrey Shor, focused on the effects of heart disease and breast cancer on women today. In the United States, 40 percent of death in women is due to heart disease. Some of the major reasons for developing heart disease are poor dieting, lack of exercise, smoking, and having a genetic disposition. The risk of developing heart disease increases after age 40, and it is a preventable condition. The acronym FACES was provided to describe the symptoms: fatigue, activities limited, chest congestion, edema which is ankle swelling, and shortness of breath. There are several treatments for heart disease such as ACE inhibitors, and statins, which mostly aim to increase blood flow. A main way to prevent this disease is by exercising at least 15 minutes a day. Avoiding cigarette smoke is important for cardiovascular health as well as eating healthy foods. Processed foods may not be healthy, which is why Dr. Shor recommended that people eat fruits and vegetables.
Breast Cancer is the second reason why most women die today in the United States. White women are at greater risk of having the cancer than other ethnicities, though black women have a greater mortality rate due to breast cancer. There are several treatments for breast cancer. Non-specific treatment is chemotherapy which poisons the system in hopes that the cancer dies before surgery is necessary. Radiation is specific in the sense that it targets the area where the cancer is, but does not directly remove it like surgery would.
Dr. Shor also explained how the development of the birth control pill 51 years ago was revolutionary to our society because it allowed women to control when they had children. This could prevent unwanted effects of pregnancy during inopportune times, as well as the ability to prepare a home with stable finances for a child. Another important development for women was the development of the HPV vaccine, which can prevent oral and cervical cancer.
The third speaker of the night was Dr. Galo Alava. He provided many statistics that mostly described the vocational issues that women face, and the disparity between women and men within the workplace. Dr. Alava noted that women doctors have increasingly outnumbered male doctors for the past two decades. In 1991, female physicians earned 34 percent less than males, and in 1992, academic faculty members were 78 percent men. An issue with this academic faculty disparity was that women did not have the opportunity to learn about the female body as much as they did about males. Since females are biologically different, they are not receiving the care that a female would require because the research for patients was initially designed for males, and hasn’t changed over the years.
The final speaker of the night was Dr. Patricia Campion. She focused on the global perspective of women’s issues. This largely included women in Africa and Asia. On these continents, women typically do the agricultural work while men run the businesses. Although women live about six to eight years longer than men, there is a high maternal mortality rate due to lack of healthcare. Poverty, malnutrition, illness, female circumcision, and unsafe abortions are all reasons for maternal mortality. A major human rights violation in Africa is female mutilation. Anywhere from 100 to 140 million women and girls are afflicted. There are no health benefits, and it causes severe bleeding, infections, issues with urinating, and childbirth issues. Doctors sometimes perform the operation in a sanitary environment with anesthetics when they predict the girl will eventually have it done in a worse condition. When genital mutilation is performed without a doctor, anesthetics are not usually used. Other statistics provided by Dr. Campion were that up to one in five women in the world report sexual abuse before age 15, and 15 to 71 percent of women report being raped by an intimate partner.
The advancements in women’s health are spectacular; women in developed countries live an average of 80 years now. Regardless of the medicinal and technological advances, women in other countries are still dying from many preventable or treatable diseases. This presentation helped to spread awareness of those less fortunate.
