World Savvy Monitor

It is increasingly the view of experts that women’s health issues need to be given special consideration within the context of larger public health.   

• Women not only suffer from gender-specific illnesses, but they also experience universal illnesses differently. 

• Women’s lack of empowerment impacts prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for ailments of all kinds.  They are less likely to have health insurance, and to have access to health care.  

Although women tend to live longer than men, life expectancy statistics do not capture quality of life.  It has been noted that women are vulnerable even at the point of conception, with preference for sons leading to abortion of female fetuses and female infanticide.  The vulnerability of girls and women increases dramatically as they reach reproductive age.  And finally, while women vastly outnumber men among the elderly population, the best that can be said for many is that they are again vulnerable, this time to physical and mental health challenges at the end of life.

In this section:

• Maternal Mortality
• Factors Influencing Maternal Mortality
• Family Planning
• HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Breast Cancer
• Other Health Concerns
• Mental Health

Next: Women and Health:  Maternal Mortality