Sex, Gender, and Historical Views on Women's Health

Sex and Gender

• Sex is a biological categorization with male/female distinctions and variants like XXY.
• Gender: socially constructed definition of identity
• It represents what someone believes they are, not a trait present at birth.

Historical Views on Women's Health

• Genesis (Bible): woman originated from Adam's rib.
• Medical authorities considered women's reproductive organs as underdeveloped male genitalia.
• Women were seen as immature versions of men.
• Hippocrates believed women were prone to excessive fluid due to porous bodies, leading to blood collection in breasts and a "wandering uterus," causing hysteria.
• Women were perceived as more emotionally inclined than men.
• Herophilus of Chalcedon (Greek physician) conducted human dissections and disproved the wandering uterus theory.
• He viewed the female body as a "replica" of the male, responsible for conception, nourishment, childbirth, and milk production.
• Herophilus did not consider female bodies inferior, linking hysteria to postpartum fatigue.
• Middle Ages: hysteria was seen as loss of consciousness or collapse from bodily weakness and breathing issues.
• It was also viewed as a sign of witchcraft, resulting in the persecution of women.

Women in Medical Practice

• 1788: Maria Petroncini Ferretti became the first female surgeon in Florence.
• 1820-1910: Florence Nightingale founded modern nursing.
• 1821-1910: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to earn an MD Degree from an American medical school.

Sex Differences in Health

• Dr. Paula Johnson (cardiologist) raises awareness of the importance of sex differences in women's health.
• Women are 70% more likely to experience depression.
• Women's symptoms are often overlooked, leading to misdiagnosis.
• 1993 NIH Act: women and minorities should be included in clinical trials.
• Linda's heart disease symptoms were initially dismissed until tests revealed blockages in arteries that presented differently in women than in men.
• Women have 3x more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer.
• A clinical trial on sex differences showed that tumors shrank more in women than men due to drug effectiveness.
• Every cell has a sex.

Life Expectancy

• Historically, women had shorter life expectancies.
• Women now outlive men on average.
• Men die approximately 4 years earlier than women globally.
• The risk of death is 10x greater in men than women.
• Biological theories consider why females outlive males.
• Coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and low HDL levels are more prevalent in men.
• Genetic theories: sex-linked disorders and estrogen levels.
• Males are more likely to die in their first year from congenital malformation and genetically linked diseases.
• Behavioral factors: obesity, smoking, risky behavior, accidents/suicide, and excessive alcohol consumption contribute to mortality.
• Food consumption: Diet and fat distribution play a role.
• Social factors: job strain and health-damaging behaviors affect health outcomes.
• Psycho-social theories: social support and coping strategies.
• Men are less likely to seek medical health than women.

Gender Stereotypes and Health

• Gender stereotypes can lead to dismissal of women's health concerns.
• Pink was once for boys and blue for girls, a trend reversed by marketing around 1920.
• Health stereotypes associate masculinity with strength and invulnerability, and femininity with weakness and vulnerability.

Systemic Health Considerations

• Diseases of the stomach, liver, and lungs were seen as reactions to womb disorders.
• Tuberculosis was attributed to environmental factors in men and menstrual malfunction in women.
• Hysteria: uterus.

Mental Health Definitions

• Mental health is a state of well-being where individuals realize their abilities, cope with stressors, work productively, and contribute to their community.
• Include dealing with daily life stressors, self-awareness, productivity, and community contribution.
• Resilience, self-actualization, and balance are elements of mental health
• Ability to handle multiple tasks, while still enjoying life.
• Mental health includes conditions and disorders affecting mood, cognition, and behavior.

Nature vs. Nurture in Mental Health

• Mental health varies across cultures and time.
• Disorders relate to individual vulnerabilities and environmental factors.
• Biological Determinants
• The heritability of bipolar disorder is about 85%.
• Psycho-social Determinants Mental disorders are influenced by many life factors.
• PTSD is prevalent among soldiers, abuse victims, and those with psychological trauma.
• The Stress-Vulnerability Model: mental disorders are products of genetic and environmental (stress) factors.
• Stressful events compromise the immune system, increasing mental health symptoms.

Mental Health During COVID-19

• Higher rates of anxiety depression, and loneliness during the pandemic. Increased economical inequalities tied to mental health
• Psychological well-being: is affected by life circumstances and is separate from happiness.
• Life going well contributes to psychological well-being.
• Involves feeling good and functioning effectively.
• Managing negative emotions is vital for well-being.
• Compromised well-being occurs with extreme or lasting negative emotions that disturb daily life functions.
• Early environments, and the ability to encourage positive behaviors.

Psychological Well-Being

• List of psychological factors include: happiness, contentment, interest, engagement and confidence.
• Includes: affection, control, purpose, and positive bonds.
• It necessitates being investigated separately because it is more than just the lack of sickness
• Enhancing, preventing, and treating disorders are needed to distinguish approaches.
• Asymmetries: brain activation may reflect a person's emotional style.
• Positive people have higher left-side prefrontal activation at rest.
• Prefrontal asymmetries stabilize in adulthood, not childhood.
• Personality and socioeconomic factors drive psychological welfare.

Culture and Mental Illness

• There are no universal criteria to consider, and labels of are culturally specific.
• Happiness: A Mental health state with resilience, self-actualization, and balance, an ability to enjoy life.
• Altruism: compassion expands emotional and physical well being.
• Being charitable: kindness affects overall well-being and longevity.

Happiness and Health

• Happiness protects the heart.
• The lower blood pressure and heart rate patterns, reduces coronary risks.
• Happiness: correlated with a stronger defenses to health, antibody responses, and reduces development of common cold.
• Stress: triggers hormonal and blood pressure changes.
• Happiness: Stress has a opposite effect.

Happiness Effects

• 2008 study: almost 10,000 Australians who considered being happier, were 1.5 times less likely to have long-term health issues.
• Happiness can impact longevity.
• Happy live longer over five years than their less happier colleagues.
• Negative emotions (stress or fear) affect biological systems, that wear the body down and lead to diseases.
• Chronic anger and anxiety interfere with the cardiac systems, causing systematic inflammation.
• Toxic stress in childhood can change bodily responses and it causes damages to organ systems.
• It results in increased heart rate.
• People are genetically predisposed to depression, anxiety, optimism, or happiness.

Environmental and Rural Health

• Encompasses the interactions of humans with their surroundings and the consequences of these interactions.
• Popluation: Food, avilability of water, energy limitations, and minimum living have limit factors.
• High fertility rates: lack of planning and causes leading to population growth.
• COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in Canada the year 2020.
• In that same year, the younger part of the population was unaffected by the virus
• The direct cause of indirect effect from harms of related substances.
• Air quality and pollution may cause human problems like forest fires and pollen/dust storms.
• The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) can measure pollution level.
• 40% of 2024 yearly consumption goes to heat purposes of heating.
• Canada: Canada is the leader in the usage and production of resources. – 16.9% of the use comes from renewable resources.
• Indoor air pollution: pulltion and indoor mold.
• Can be limited with the use of transforming to systems with renewable fuels
• Other causes: include vehicle fuel efficiency, chemical pollution use, and less toxic use of products and cleaners.
• A typical resident has about 10% tons of CO2 per year.
• To reduce: impacts we need to average that figure.
• Rural Health: Individual, and population with health care outcomes in a group with characteristics.
• Rural: tendency focus on geographically for their healthcare, with a broader community outlook.
• Rural: population about 22-38% in 1996.

Rural Population Specifics

• Rural: areas with a maximum of with less than a 10,000 rural population, excluding zones
• It can be define in more municipal territories centered from 100,000
• Mortality rate: can occur in rural populations more often, and higher death rates of suicide and illnesses.
• About 74 and 76 are the men's life expectancy respectively.
• Rural populations: have lower mortality rates of cancer.
• Higher risk of arthritis in women.
• Health is impacted: with occupational hazards such as logging, mining and logging.

Important Factors

• Rural individuals often have closer personal attachments than those in urban communities.
• There is a rise in mortality as outcome of health is undesirable.