Women, Health and the Environment - Assignment Example

Women’s Health of Learning Question 2 Womens health is dependent on various factors that have either a positive or a negative impact on both the psychological and the physiological condition of women. In this context, sexual and reproductive health of women are particularly vulnerable because they are extremely sensitive to the conditions in which women live. Sexual and reproductive health are interrelated, which determines the fact that they have similar factors that affect them. In particular, one can point to the socio-cultural, economic, and biological factors associated with heredity and age characteristics of women. The socio-cultural factors are often represented by gender inequality. In turn, gender inequality is able to provide an extremely negative impact on sexual and reproductive health of women since it “limits womens and girls control over their sexual and reproductive lives” (“What Factors Affect Reproductive Health?” n.d.). Gender inequality in society leads to the fact that in contrast to men women are much more likely to face a violation of their rights. A similar situation takes place in the case of sexual violence and coercion, sexual trafficking and female genital mutilation. Womens sexual and reproductive health suffer especially in those countries, where early and forced marriages are being cultivated. Early marriages restrict women in their ability to get life experience, education and perspective work. As a result, adolescent girls do not have enough knowledge about timely and correct contraception and prevention of occurrence of various diseases. Economic factors play an equally important role. In particular, poverty is also able to provide a negative impact on womens health. Poverty defines the fact that women do not have the opportunity to receive qualified medical care. In addition, poor countries are characterized by rapid growth in the number of population due to high birth rates. This not only creates a serious burden on womens health but it can also cause a variety of diseases that are treated sufficiently long and unsuccessfully in poor countries. One should not forget that the age characteristics of the female body have no less significant role in sexual and reproductive health of women. In particular, according to various studies, “menopause ... was found to be significantly associated with several sexual function measurements, including lower sexual desire, a belief that interest in sexual activity declines with age, and womens reports of decreased arousal compared with their 40s” (“Age-Related Factors ...,” n.d). In general, sexual and reproductive health of women are united by the fact that they have almost similar factors that determine their status. However, the difference between the two is that in many cases the sexual health is no less important factor for reproductive health. Due to various negative reasons (sexually transmitted diseases, early sexual activity, rape, etc.), the state of sexual health determines the ability of women to the conception and birth of healthy children. In addition, the reproductive health of women is determined by the specifics of pregnancy and childbirth. In fact, “every year 10-15 million women a year suffer severe or long-lasting illnesses or disabilities caused by complications during pregnancy or childbirth” ("What Factors ...?" n.d). Thus, the main difference between sexual and reproductive health of women is the fact that sexual health might be one the most important factors for womens reproductive health. Question 4 Worldwide, women are faced with many problems, which have extremely negative consequences for their health. Various data confirm the fact that many women suffer from violence that comes from their intimate partners. In fact, intimate partner violence takes various forms, namely psychological, physical, and sexual. Often, physical violence is inextricably linked to sexual violence (Robinson, 2003). According to Robinson (2003), “violence has medical, behavioral and psychological consequences.” The harm caused by violence against women takes numerous forms, since it involves not only their physical, but also their mental state. As in the case of cancer, women face a particularly difficult psychological state, which is described as depression and can lead to quite different results. Faced with cancer, many women may also fall into despair. Both situations can lead to a variety of insanity, even to suicide. In addition, in both situations, the physical health of women is being seriously tested. Not only beatings inflicted by the result of violence but also chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer have an extremely negative impact on the physical condition of women. The idea is that the internal organs undergo various negative changes that prevent women feel good. Thus, one can find a similarity between the physical and psychological states of women in both cases. Nevertheless, one should not completely identify these two experiences. In the case of intimate partner violence, women experience fear for their lives, but many of them get used to the situation. This is particularly being observed in those societies where male domination and violence against women are common and if not encouraged, but not prohibited by the culture (Robinson, 2003). With regard to the experience of women facing cancer, it is rather existential. Often the diagnosis is a surprise for the women who had not suspected that they may become a victim of cancer. Such a sudden illness like cancer poses a particular extremely heavy and tense atmosphere, which for women is associated not only with questions about whether they will remain alive. Women are also concerned about what appearance they will have as a result of successful treatment. Various studies as well as the stories of women demonstrate that women face with the question whether they will remain women after the treatment. Unfortunately, breast cancer often leads to surgical removal of the breasts. This means that women have to learn to accept themselves in a new guise that it is difficult to do given that society imposes its own requirements for what a woman should look like. The requirement to “look normal” makes women to solve the problem of the appearance adequate to public standards (Batt, 2002). Thus, when women fight against cancer, they have to contend not only with their internal state, but also to a certain extent with the society in which they live. They have to re-start their lives and build the image of a woman who was able to beat cancer. Question 5 As is well known, in the modern world, the concept of beauty has its own idiosyncrasies. In particular, it suggests to women such requirements as a trim and slim figure, the lack of pale skin, beautiful and tightened breasts, and more. In this case, the myth of beauty necessarily implies the presence of these parameters. In their absence, women face different complexes and psychological problems because society constantly tells them that they do not conform to the ideals of modern beauty. Unfortunately, not only the individual characteristics of the body do not give all women the opportunity to meet all the parameters of feminine beauty. Often serious diseases are the obstacle that prevents women feel beautiful and live in harmony with society, which sets out the criteria of feminine beauty. One of the most common disease that results in the death of hundreds and thousands of women worldwide is cancer. In fact, “breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in women” (Mitra, Faruque, & Avis, 2004). Treatment for breast cancer involves the use of various techniques. Chemotherapy does not always produce effective results. For this reason, doctors use other methods of treatment, such as surgical removal of the breasts. As a result, if the treatment is successful women continue their lives without their natural breasts. In this context, women are faced with a serious problem caused by the fact that the community does not pay any attention to what happened to them and continues to insist on compliance with the standards of female beauty. This means that women have to use artificial limbs to no one knew about their illness. The need to comply with the "beauty myth" makes women take various attempts to meet the standards of female beauty, while no one is trying to understand what suffering and difficulties they had to go through to stay alive. Stories of many women can ensure in the foregoing. In particular, the stories told by Sharon Batt allows one to see how cruel and unjust are the modern standards of beauty that categorically do not take into account the fact that any woman could face a serious disease that once and forever change her appearance. In Batt’s stories, women who went through breast cancer but have lost their breasts face the fact that they are required to use breast prostheses or implants. The main argument is that a woman should “look normal” (Batt, 2002). Society exert pressure on these women and does not make any favors to them. As well as other women who do not suffer from breast cancer, such women have to meet the ideals of feminine beauty. This in turn requires them to conceal the consequences of any treatment whether it is the loss of hair or breasts. The stories of these women are full of resentment and frustration towards the society that does not provide any moral support, even considering the trials the women have gone through. Question 6 “Environmental health is an arena for health policy that emerges from the inextricable link between human health and the environmental context within which people lead their daily lives” (Kettel, 1996). Environment has a very important impact on human health, since the air people breathe as well as the food and water they consume largely determine their health status. However, studies indicate that womens health is in a much closer connection with the peculiarities of the environment rather than the men’s (Kettel, 1996). This is due to the fact that women have much more frequent and intense contacts with the environment than men. Firstly, according to generally accepted standards, women must perform a variety of household functions that are directly related to the elements of the environment, such as soil, water, sun and air. Given that the environmental situation in the modern world has a high degree of contamination it is not difficult to guess that because of the specificity of their basic responsibilities women are the first "victims" of a bad environment. In addition, women are often employed in the field of agriculture that also involves regular contacts with the environment, which in most cases could have a negative impact on their health (Duncan, 2007). In order to see this, one needs to recall the conditions of womens work in developing countries, which do not involve any measures to reduce the negative impact of the environment on womens health. Women work in such conditions, which are associated with the occurrence of many serious diseases, and some of them are fatal. “The leading causes of death in the developing countries are diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory conditions such as pneumonia and bronchitis, other infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, and vector-borne diseases such as schistosomiasis and malaria” (Kettel, 1996). In addition, studies show that the female body is more sensitive to the level of atmospheric temperature. A significant increase in temperature because of global warming causes the death of a large number of women that exceeds the number of casualties among the men. "Women are less able to tolerate heat stress" (Duncan, 2007). In particular, in 80s years due to a sharp rise in temperature “elderly women were at highest risk of heat- associated death: among those aged 75-84 years, death rates rose 39% for men, and 66% for women; among those over 85 years old, increases were 13% for men and 55% for women” (Duncan, 2007). Climate change leads to other negative consequences in the form of tornadoes, floods and so on. In this regard, the women as homemakers, who perform the role of wives and mothers equally with children are a particularly vulnerable part of the population. Furthermore, the lack of food and drink also has a negative influence primarily on women and their health, since as mothers and wives “women are likely to experience a decrease in nutritional health, as they are often the first to go hungry in an attempt to protect their families” (Duncan, 2007). Researchers find a link between environmental pollution and using various chemicals (such as members of the pesticides) and the development of cancer in women (Mitra, Faruque, & Avis, 2004). References Age-related factors that impact sexual functioning. (n.d.). The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC). Retrieved from http://www.sexualityandu.ca/health-care-professionals/sexuality-in-older-women-and-their-partners/age-related-factors Batt, S. (2002). “Perfect people”: cancer charities. In K.S. Ratcliff. (Ed.). Women and heath: Power, technology, inequality and conflict in a gendered world (pp. 110-118). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Duncan, K. (2007). Global climate change and womens health. Women & Environment, 10-11. Kettel, B. (1996). Women, health and the environment. Social Science and Medicine, 42 (10): 1367-1379. Mitra, A.K., Faruque, F.S. & Avis, A.L. (2004). Breast cancer and environmental risk: Where is the link? Journal of Environmental Health, 66 (7): 24-32. Robinson, G.E. (2003). Violence against women in North America. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 6, 185–191. What factors affect reproductive health? (n.d.). Women & Children First (UK). Retrieved from http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.org.uk/what-we-do/key-issues/reproductive-health-and-planning/what-factors-affect-reproductive-health Read More