Being a man or a woman has a significant impact on health, as a result of both biological and gender-related differences. The health of women and girls is of particular concern because, in many societies, they are disadvantaged by discrimination rooted in sociocultural factors.
Women usually ignored their own health and concentrate instead on their partner’s and their children’s. First of all you must take care of yourself.
Women’s life stages are consisting from the reproductive cycle, that begins with menstruation and ending with menopause. To learn women’s life stages, start understand the biology. Every month an egg is released from the ovary during ovulation. It travels down the fallopian tube, where it may be fertilized by a sperm. If fertilized, it implants in the lining of the uterus. If not, the egg and lining are shed during menstruation. This continues until per menopause — the time when a woman’s body begins the natural transition to menopause. Women’s life stages are often marked by specific symptoms and signs, such as, mood swings, menstrual cramps, hot flashes and weight gain. Understand how healthy lifestyle choices can help you feel you’re best at any stage — and know when to ask your doctor for additional suggestions.
Women’s sexual health is a significant fact of women’s health, whether you’re trying to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases or you’re worried about low sex drive or other women’s sexual health problems.
Birth control is a main and important aspect of women’s sexual health. Weigh the pros and cons of various types of birth control. Suppose how you feel about planning for sex, your comfort level with various methods of contraceptive devices, and the effectiveness of each particular method.
Sure, women’s sexual health goes beyond contraception. Learn how to achieve a fulfilling sexual life, and know how to protect you from sexually transmitted diseases. As you get older, understand common changes in women’s sexual health — and how to keep up a healthy and enjoyable sex life at any age.
General Health and Wellness
There is plausible information available to women not only on such problems as, stress, alcoholism, addictions, depression, and eating disorders but also on basic facts such as exercise and good nutrition . For instance, it is beneficial that a woman maintain her \normal weight. If a woman’s waist size measures more than 35 inches (89 cm), she is more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure. Eliminating after- dinner snacks, eating sensible meals , and making physical activity a part of daily life are significant ways to help control weight and lower the risk of a long list of health problems.
Smoking is dangerous for woman’s health (or to anyone else’s). But women continue to smoke despite the known health risks. Even though the number of women smoking is declining, still about 22 % of women in the Europe were smokers in 2004. Women are smoking in spite of the well-publicized risks of lung disease including, heart disease, and innumerable other health problems now linked to smoking.
Drinking an enormous amount of alcohol is also dangerous for woman’s health. Although women typically begin drinking at a later age than men and tend to drink somewhat less, women need lower doses of alcohol before developing alcohol-related medical problems such as hepatitis and cirrhosis .
Women should be aware that they metabolize a number of drugs differently than men. Sometimes and for some medications, the rate may be slower, and in other cases, faster. It is, therefore, essential that women are well informed about the kinds and correct dosages of drugs they are taking.
Female Body
There are main differences in body anatomy between mans and women . As more women are occupied within sports, a number of these anatomic differences are being identified, often because men and women athletes sustain different types of injuries. In females, the hamstrings (muscles behind the leg) are not as strong as in males. Women also have a wider hip-to-knee ratio than men. A woman’s legs are relatively longer and her torso shorter than a man of comparable size. She has a lower center of gravity, less muscle mass, less dense bones, and higher body fat.
Anatomic differences between men and women go well beyond the reproductive and skeletal systems. For example, they involve the brain and organs such as the heart. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States. It is now described as an “equal opportunity killer.” Nine million American women suffer from heart disease. One in ten women between 45 to 64 years of age has some form of heart disease as does one in three women over age 65.
Women tend to suffer their first heart attack 10 years later than men. For reasons that remain unclear (and require more research), the likelihood for a younger woman to die from a heart attack is significantly greater than that of a man. A recent study found that among women younger than 50 years of age, the mortality rate was more than twice that of men of the same age! Moreover, the symptoms of an impending heart attack may be somewhat different in a woman than in a man. A woman may more often ignore the symptoms and fail to seek medical attention. Every woman needs to develop her own healthy heart program.
Female Hormones
A hormone is a chemical substance secreted by one tissue that travels by way of body fluids to affect another tissue in the body. In essence, hormones are “chemical messengers.” Many hormones, especially those affecting growth and behavior, are significant to both men and women. Nevertheless, women are more often portrayed as being under the influence of their hormones, as being subject to hormonal “tides” or hormonal “storms.”
Some hormones are of special concern to women. The sex hormones produced by the ovaries are not only involved in the growth, maintenance, and the repair of the reproductive tissues but they influence other body tissues and bone mass as well. This can be a problem for women who strive for lower body fat (for example, athletes, models, and ballerinas) or for women with eating disorders. Women with low body fat often do not produce sufficient amounts of sex hormones. They can, therefore, experience a cessation of menstruation, osteoporosis(porous bones), and fractures from weakened bones, and other conditions similar to those faced by many post- menopausal women.
After menopause, a woman’s body produces less of the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone. Symptoms of the menopausal transition can be troubling for some women. Many doctors prescribe hormone therapy (HT, HRT, ERT, ET) to ease menopausal symptoms, although this therapy should be administered for a short duration due to increases in heart attack and slightly increases the risk of breast cancer associated with hormone therapy.
Hormonal problems for women are not confined to those involving the sex hormones. For example, thyroid disease, both hyperthyroidism (over-activity of the thyroid gland) and hypothyroidism (under- activity of the thyroid), is far more common in women than in men.
Women’s Cosmetic Concerns
To many women, “cosmetic” means a make-up preparation for external use, such as lipstick or eye-shadow. “Cosmetic” can also mean a medical procedure done to correct defects or for the sake of appearance. It is probably an underestimate that more than 600,000 cosmetic procedures are performed each year. The variety of procedures and the number of women undergoing them is increasing all the time.
Millions of women have resorted to breast augmentation or reduction over the years. These procedures remain both popular and controversial. Breast reconstruction, especially following breast cancer, is usually viewed in a different light. Because all of these cosmetic procedures are also medical in nature, it is important that a woman understand their risks and benefits.
Menstruation
For about 40 years of her life, a woman experiences a phenomenon called the menstrual cycle. Menstruation occurs every 26 to 35 days (more or less monthly) in every normal non-pregnant woman prior to menopause. Each month can be divided up into a follicular phase (an egg develops), ovulation (egg release) at mid-month, and a luteal phase (during which the uterine lining ready to receive a fertilized egg). If the egg is not fertilized, the uterine lining is shed, and a woman has her menstrual period. Then, the entire sequence of events starts over again.
Most women do not have difficulties during the first half of their menstrual cycle, but once the egg has been released, there may be problems such as pelvic pain. During the second half of the cycle, a woman may experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and she may have menstrual cramps at the onset of her menstrual flow.
Approximately 70%-90% of women suffer from premenstrual syndrome. PMS symptoms include irritability, nervousness, cramps, bloating, and headaches.
Every step of a woman’s menstrual cycle is controlled by hormones. The production of these hormones relies on the general good health of the woman. The loss of too much body weight can result in the cessation of menstruation. There are a number of disorders marked either by absent periods or by periods that are too long, heavy, irregular, or painful. Underlying conditions, which may include polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis, need to be medically evaluated.
Ironically, there is a medical condition in which affected women benefit from menstruation. The disease is hemochromatosis, or too much iron in the blood. Menstruating women with hemochromatosis can lose enough blood during their periods that they may not need treatment to remove the excess iron.
Sexuality
Sexuality deals with a woman’s sexual attitudes and practices. During her lifetime, a woman goes through many changes, not only in her body, but perhaps also in attitude and lifestyle.
The sex hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, have a profound influence on a woman’s sex life. Women also produce testosterone and may need it for sexual arousal. In humans, the sexual impulse is not tied to reproduction and women will engage in sexual activity even when they are not fertile.
Little is known about what facilitates or inhibits feminine sexual arousal. It is estimated that 50 million American women have difficulty with sexual arousal. Problems include low sexual desire, sexual aversion, difficulty with sexual arousal (like impotencein men) and pain during intercourse (dyspareunia).
Physical exercise may increase sexual arousal whereas chronic illness, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, or depression can inhibit sexual arousal. Alcohol and certain drugs such as tranquilizers can also inhibit the sexual response.
Following the success of sildenafil (Viagra), the male impotence drug, there is considerable research now being conducted on drugs that improve blood flow to the vagina and the vaginal region which may assist female sexual arousal.
Motherhood
A woman who has children devotes a large proportion of her life to motherhood. Although a woman’s fertility is limited roughly to a 40 year period, her mothering responsibilities may last considerably longer — 60 years or so. And most mothers never cease being concerned about the health and welfare of their children (and grandchildren), no matter what their ages. A mother is a mother forever.
During the time of motherhood, a woman is responsible not only for maintaining her own health but also for maximizing the health of her family. Roughly one-third of all children in this country (19 million) live apart from their fathers, which means that society still relies on mothers to protect and nurture their children.