In a world where women lose their idealism and are brought face to face with reality from an early age, their shoulders are given responsibilities. As they grow up and as they face the world more and more, their responsibilities grow more. It is not uncommon to witness that women are expected to put these responsibilities before themselves. So much so that they forget their responsibility towards themselves. They forget the responsibility towards their body and soul.
“Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women.”
Michelle Obama
It’s not just important but necessary to understand that for decades and centuries now, women’s physical and mental health has not been given much contemplation. Even if it has, the implementation of these very thoughts and ideas lacks effectiveness. Therefore, the sole purpose that The Health Capital wishes to fulfil is to make others, especially women, understand the importance of one’s body and soul, regardless of gender.
Why are a woman’s body and soul ignored?
There are innumerable reasons to know why women have been ignoring their mental and physical health. It would be incorrect to state that every female has been putting others before herself but many of them have been doing so. Accentuating these reasons is important to help women figure out their bodies and soul, and the possible health issues they may have.
Listed below are the major reasons.
1. Prioritising:
As has been loosely stated before, women forget to keep in check their health. Though the healthcare sector has been progressively working on this issue, women do not come out and speak for themselves as their priority list is set. However, these priority lists lack one very important thing- themselves. They forget that they have a responsibility toward their own body and soul. They put others’ needs before their own and quite often forget themselves.
2. Unaware:
Many women are unaware of certain health problems that might have affected them. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of proper education. Young girls should be taught about women’s health problems and concerns. They should be informed and educated about the fact that they need to look after their mind and body.
3. Surrounding:
Toxic relations with people and the area you reside in can be adversely impactful on your mindset. This makes her lose her identity and eventually makes her forget how she needs to take care of herself. It makes her adjust to the toxicity, eventually deteriorating her mental and physical health.
4. Misdiagnosis and Gaslighting:
One of the ugly things about the healthcare sector that no one wishes to bring up is Gaslighting. Women’s health is gaslighted. Many of their health issues in the healthcare sector are misdiagnosed and reduced to relatively minor problems. For instance, heart disease is misdiagnosed as anxiety or ovarian cysts reduced to ‘normal period pains.
5. Gender Bias:
Multiple instances have shown us the gender disparities that are present in society. It wouldn’t come as a shock to know that these disparities and biases are present in the healthcare sector as well. For example, an analysis was done by Academic Emergency Medicine which highlighted how women who went through severe stomach pain had to wait for almost 33% longer than men with the same symptoms.
6. Financial Insecurity:
Poverty is a worldwide problem. So financial insecurity stands as a major barrier for women and is why they tend to ignore their health. Even if they do pay attention to it, they do not have the means and facility to reach out to healthcare facilities.
Body and Soul: The Connectivity
An individual is made up of two things, body and soul. Both of them affect one another. A woman’s health problem, whether it be physical or mental, affects both her body and soul. It affects the way she thinks and reacts. Any health issue can affect her soul, her mind and her heart. Any mental health problem can lead to deterioration in physical health.
For a healthy body and soul, it is important to understand that neglecting any one of them will be equivalent to neglecting the other aspect because once you start to neglect your mental health, your body starts to respond to it. And once you neglect your body, your soul starts to get damaged. Therefore, women must take care of their souls and body.
Looking after your Body and Soul
Now that the reasons have been highlighted, it is crucial to underline how people, especially women, can guide themselves toward a healthy body and soul. This includes cooperation not just from women but from the healthcare sector, the government sector, society and every person who cares about the betterment of this world.
What women must do:
The steps that need to be taken by women for their health are the most important ones because only those people can be helped who want to be helped. Therefore, women need to tackle the major women’s health issues.
- Realising: They must realise that their health, whether it be mental health or physical, is important. They need to look at their health as an important component of their priority list.
- Understanding: They need to comprehend that they can have mental health and physical health issues, and need to keep looking out for common symptoms. They must prioritise their health because they won’t be able to focus on other things if their health starts deteriorating.
- Un-Denial: They must not deny the very presence of women’s health issues. They often ignore the fact that they can have issues because of prioritising other things like financial insecurity, a toxic family, or some other responsibilities.
- Knowledge: they should become self-aware. They should try to be curious and keep gaining more and more knowledge about women’s health. They can reach out to various healthcare sectors or doctors to find out more about it. They should read more books and blogs/articles for the same.
- Regular check-ups: This needs to be promoted more and more. Women should go for regular check-ups and get to know about the deficiencies they may have or any other tests they shall get done to keep a track of their health.
What can the healthcare sector do:
The healthcare sector must take some steps to help women reach out for medical issues. It’s to make them feel comfortable and more aware of the facilities present around them, and what better way than the healthcare sector doing so by itself?
- Blogs: One of the most effective ways to spread awareness about health issues is to make women more aware, especially through blogs. The cherry on top? When these articles are written by the healthcare sectors themselves. That is why The Health Capital focuses on blogs and articles to spread more knowledge.
- Stop Gaslighting: The ugly part of the healthcare sector, as mentioned before in this blog, is the depreciated treatment and attention provided to women’s health issues. Hence, there can be strict policies by healthcare agencies to stop the gaslighting and misdiagnosis of health issues.
- Regular Check-ups: The healthcare sector should focus on mandating several checkups for women and take initiatives for the proper treatment.
Lending a Helping Hand to your Body and Soul
Many women across the world face issues related to their health. But worse than that, they neglect these issues and go about their daily routines. They ignore the minor symptoms. On top of that, society’s ignorance of women’s health just adds more to the problem. Therefore, this calls for more attention to a woman’s body and soul.
“Caring for your body, mind, and spirit is your greatest and grandest responsibility. It’s about listening to the needs of your soul and then honouring them.”
Kristi Ling
The Health Capital wants to make a difference in the world, especially for women. It has created a safe, comfortable and affordable interface for women to reach out for help. More than that, the blogs that are published are simply for more knowledge and to let women around the world know that their health matters.
The Health Capital has made it easier for women across the world, from any corner of the world, to reach out for help. It has made it easier for women to take care of their health, by providing efficient means to tackle women’s health concerns. As an element of the healthcare sector, THC provides free health analysis with medically verified questions that will not only allow females to analyze their health but also understand how important several symptoms are.
FAQs
1. How can women reach out for help for their body and soul, and tackle the major women’s health issues?
Women can reach out to many government helplines, like 180. There are many government schemes, like Pradhanmantri Ujjwala Yojana, Women Helpline Scheme, and Mahila Shakti Kendras. These schemes are really helpful and women can reach out for help.
2. What are the major women’s health problems that are prevailing in the world?
There are many women’s health problems that are prevalent in women, like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, breast cancer, and cervical cancer. These things need to be checked out and that is why women need to get regular health checkups
3. What should the women’s body fat percentage be?
The body fat percentage for women shall be 21% to 32%. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “The healthy body fat percentage in women is based on age. For people aged 20-39, women should aim for 21% to 32% of body fat. For those who are aged 40-59, they should have body fat of approximately 23% to 33%.
4. Amongst the major women’s health problems, which aspect should be more stressed?
Reproductive health should be given a little more attention because each month, a woman’s body goes through a complete hormone cycle. Therefore, when something is off or unbalanced, it affects a woman’s entire life.
5. What should the private sector, as a key element in the healthcare sector, do to improve women’s health problems?
One of the most efficient ways can be to organize healthcare camps and awareness programmes, especially in rural areas. Apart from this, they can also mandate some schemes and make everyone abreast of the fact that all the government schemes will be prioritized in private hospitals as well.