| T.V. Bendas |
GENDER PROBLEMS IN REGARD TO HEALTH AND ILLNESS |
| Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russia |
Until 1990s gender problems were not investigated as related to health and
illness. But nowadays this is viewed as a whole. We can single out 10 problems.
- Gender differences in pain sensation. According to Ph.Greenberger (USA),
adult men and women (35 years old and older) are the most studied group. Women
are more sensitive, than men to pain in muscle and bones, stomach and bowels,
and headache.
- Gender differences in analgesic effect. Some medicines (opiates) weren’t
effective as analgesic for men, but were useful for women especially in the
second phase of menstrual cycle (data of B. Hellstrom, Sweden).
- Gender medicines or gender dose. We haven’t data about gender effect
of other medicines, but as men and women differ in such parameters as height,
weight, organism peculiarities, in future practice we’ll have either
gender medicines or, at least, gender doses of them.
- Male and female psychotherapeutic criteria. D. Ivey and C. Conoly (USA)
stated that women-patients were thought ill by professional men-psycho-therapeutists
more often, than by their women colleagues. And in general normative scores
of adults’ psychic health and illnesses are more male, than female.
- Attitude to health and healthy way of life. There is a myth about women
being ill more often than men and the following joke: “Women fall ill,
but men die”. And in general women pay more attention to their health
than men (they prefer healthy food, take care of slender figure, visit doctors
more often and discuss their health with other people - E.Lahelma et al. –
data in Britain and Finland).
- Life duration as a consequence of the mode of life and health care. According
to I. Stuart-Hamilton, the biological (inheritance, inborn illnesses, low
height) and social (the mode of life - nourishment, drinking, smoking, move
activity; social-economic conditions, cultural habits) factors influence
life duration of both genders (but we cannot determine the most important
factor). In spite of longer female life duration in developed countries, there
is a special phenomenon in Russia such as “the male super-death-rate”.
- Gender illnesses: the biological and social factors. In Orenburg (Russia)
the male (drug addiction, alcoholism, active tuberculosis - the last only
in deviant men) and female illnesses (connected with non-safe sex - only in
deviant children and small girls) are the consequences of unhealthy way of
life. In many countries men of working age are seriously ill more often, than
non-working women and perhaps identical pension age for both sexes might be
introduced.
- Gender differences in personality of medicine managers. 100 university and
medicine academy managers (50 women and 50 men, average age 45.7 years) were
investigated by methods: MMPI, Cattel, TAT, Guilford-O’Sullivan. The
results: 1) women had such features (in comparison with men) as: femininity,
extraversion, motivation of affiliation, emotionality and emotional non-stability,
high socio-emotional success, egalitarian views to male and female leadership,
high sexual appeal and activity, using of qualitative (unlike men - quantitative)
strategy of solving tasks, unfavorable private life; 2) men had such features
(excluding the above mentioned as: high intellect, dominance, aggressiveness,
confidence, high sexuality.
- Medicine managers’ psychological well-being. Other results of previous
investigation: female family situation and psychological well-being was less
harmonious than the male one (in psychological health, hypochondria, hypomania,
anxiety, fear of success, marriage failure, in absence of men-relatives’
approving their leadership).
- Russian doctors’ attitude to gender problems of health and illness.
34 doctors (26 women and 8 men, 25-55 years old) were interviewed. Results:
the answers of both sexes were as scientific (male answers more often, than
female ones) as stereotypic. We can state such phenomenon as “sex patriotism”
(if a person promotes the peculiarities of his/her own sex contrary to professional
views). And some of the interviewed did not know anything about gender differences,
because “they didn’t see such problem in general”.
