The following guest post was written by Sylvia Kang, CEO of Mira. A biomedical engineer with passion for entrepreunership, Sylvia founded Mira to help women and people with ovaries take control over their hormonal health and fertility journeys.
Women’s health is a tricky landscape to navigate. Did you know that – despite living longer than men on average – women spend a startling 25% of their lives in poor health?
And new research shows that we still have a long way to go.
A recent survey by Mira has found that 65% of American women feel their symptoms are dismissed by doctors and half say that they have experienced medical gaslighting at some point. Meanwhile, many women are taught to blame problems on their cycle or are not diagnosed with gender-specific conditions quickly enough due to lack of research.
Therein lies the problem.
Medical information and practices have long revolved around men’s bodies with the false belief that women’s bodies would respond in the same way. It’s an unsurprising fact when we consider that, until as recently as 1993, women were excluded from US clinical trials because they were considered too complex.
This lack of knowledge is having a dire effect on gender equality and quality of care as women feel unable to seek the help they need or dismiss their own concerns as not being valid.
And it’s having a startling effect on the economy, too.
If we can bridge the gap between the amount of time women spend in ill health compared to men, it’s been estimated that a staggering $1trn could be added to the global economy by 2040.
THE SEX HORMONE AWARENESS GAP: WHAT IS IT?
Complex conditions such as fertility issues, endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome are often misdiagnosed, with women told their symptoms are in their head or just their hormones playing around.
Patients hide how they feel for fear of being judged, especially surrounding topics that are often considered taboo to discuss openly – like the menopause or menstruation.
One such area, which is rarely spoken about, is the ‘sex hormone awareness gap’. Put simply, this refers to the lack of knowledge on how hormones affect women.
As an example, 30% of Americans didn’t learn about hormones in sex education classes. Additionally, of those who took part in the above survey, 37% of female participants said they don’t receive enough information about hormonal imbalance.
Perhaps most concerningly, Mira found that 90% of Americans said their sex education failed to provide them with the guidance they needed to navigate issues like hormonal imbalances, fertility issues, changes in the menstrual cycle, and perimenopause.
This knowledge gap is worsened by the lack of data about women’s health. Until it’s adequately collected, regulated, analyzed and shared, the progress that’s needed to bridge the gap will not be made.
WOMEN ARE BEING FAILED BY DOCTORS
Women are often left a loss of what to do. I know what this feels like – I had bleeding during my pregnancy. Doctors told me they could do nothing more than prescribe painkillers.
Even after I gave birth, the bleeding didn’t stop and continued between my periods. When I sought treatment, doctors did an ultrasound and then an internal exam, but they still couldn’t get the bottom of what was going on.
This was because they didn’t have the right data to understand my body.
I went through the emotional ringer during this time. Women are fundamentally being left in the dark about what’s really going on in their own bodies.
BRIDGING THE GAP
So, what can we do to change this?
Firstly, it’s crucial to diagnose women at an early stage – and that’s where technology steps in.
Femtech – which centers around developing software and solutions specifically for women’s health – is the key to solving the biggest issues caused by the hormone gap, and other gender-specific conditions.
Modern femtech devices and applications allow women to gain a better understanding of their bodies on an individual level – sometimes from the comfort of their homes – rather than be forced to rely on generic research that is often based on a male body.
This empowers women by giving them the tools they need to advocate for themselves. But for femtech to reach its full potential, the complexity of female hormones needs to be acknowledged and better understood by the medical community and society as a whole.
A good start to change is to raise awareness; if we don’t acknowledge the problem, we can’t take steps to tackle it. For example, we at Mira set up an annual nationwide campaign – Sex Hormones Awareness Week – from 18 to 24 February. The week will stress that young people should be given a comprehensive understanding of hormones from an early age.
Apart from that, governments need to call for more funding into women’s health, sexual health and reviewing – and in some cases overhauling – sexual health curriculums.
Medical education also needs an overhaul to eliminate the historic biases against women with fair gender representation in clinical trials, for a start.
This will hopefully work to break existing taboos as we look at why general health conditions don’t manifest in women the same way they do in men.
There’s also an overwhelming need for product development and affordable solutions for consumers, which will be stressed as part of the campaign.
How we can bridge the gap:
- Increased awareness
- More research and funding into women’s health
- Investment into gender-specific conditions
- Comprehensive sex education
- Elimination of historic biases
- Product development and the creation of affordable consumer solutions
IT’S A START… BUT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE
While these are all steps in the right direction, a lot more needs to be done – it’s not just the hormone gap that affects us.
As an example, women climax less during sex than men (often referred to as the orgasm gap) and are forced to pay tax on essential items such as period products, to mention just two inequalities.
This is of particular importance in a post-Roe v Wade America, where women face new difficulties – from the closure of local health clinics to a general fear of accessing basic healthcare in certain states.
We cannot rest on our laurels and must push for worldwide action. When I struggled with bleeding during pregnancy, I shouldn’t have been forced to seek out a solution myself.
I shouldn’t have been left to my own devices at what was a scary and traumatic time.
The doctors I trusted should have tried harder to help, but they didn’t have the tools to do so. Until we invest in women’s health – including their sex hormones – we will continue to fumble around in the dark.
Let’s turn the light on.
