Although men and women are alike in many respects, they face different health issues that have become serious concerns to medical practitioners and international organizations alike. Several countries in 1995 became signatories to the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, yet women continue to face serious health crises that require urgent attention and collaborative efforts across the board. The top 10 of these health threats will be considered herein –
Breast and Cervical Cancers: Women face cancers of all kinds, but breast and cervical cancers have become prominent among these. It is on the record of the World Health Organization (WHO) that over 500,000 women die from breast and cervical cancers respectively annually all over the world.
Reproductive Health: It is estimated that about 222 million women all over the world lack adequate access to contraception services, making them open to unwanted pregnancies and the health risks that come with it. Considering the fact that women are mostly the victims in a sexual relationship, women aged 15-44 are open to unsafe sex and reproductive problems that emanate therefrom.
Maternal Health: Imagine a pregnant woman dying from labor complications as a result of non-existent maternity care. WHO says over 300,000 women from pregnancy and childbirth complications in 2013, underscoring the need for well-targeted healthcare for pregnant mothers.
HIV/AIDS: Whether you believe it or not, women are largely the victims and carriers of HIV/AIDS because they bear the brunt of unprotected sex and frequent rapes. Since women often contract HIV which could progress to AIDS infection, they mostly also suffer from tuberculosis.
STDs: Gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV/AIDS, Chlamydia, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections plague women, with over 200,000 stillbirths occurring every year from syphilis alone.
Domestic Violence: Women experience domestic violence everywhere in the world, and they also suffer sexual violence in addition to this. One in three women under the age of 50 years has been subjected to physical assault or sexual violence from their partner or some other stranger everywhere.
Mental health: Several pieces of research point to the fact that women experience depression, anxiety, attempted suicide, and other somatic issues much more than men do. Women tend to be more sensitive to mental and bodily issues, even as they are the largest victims of mental assaults from all fronts of life.
Lifestyle problems: Women experience more lifestyle problems that have claimed their lives much more than men, and these range from obesity, drugs and substance abuse, alcoholism, tobacco misuse, traffic accidents, and other non-communicable diseases among others.
Youthful issues: Young girls get impregnated every day all over the world, and these face the problems of STDs, abortion, and unsafe baby delivery on daily basis. Some even get frustrated to the point of secretly delivering their babies and throwing them away in waste dumps, or trying unsafe abortion techniques.
Effects of old age: When women work all their life and get old, they rarely get access to proper healthcare and the needed social services required to make their older years blissful. Add to this the problem of receiving their pensions or other official benefits and you understand the problems women face everywhere in the world.
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