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Ireland Women Health Information
– Reported, January 24, 2012
Women in Ireland clearly experience a range of health inequalities, which are compounded by social exclusion. The following provide some examples, ranging from womens capacity to improve their health status, the impact of poverty on womens health and the type and level of services available.
Lack of income was cited as the major barrier to improving health by the participants in the In From The Margin project Unemployed women have been found to be more than twice as likely to give birth to low-birth-weight babies than those in higher professional groups
Women on low incomes who qualify for medical cards have a higher rate of colposcopy treatment for abnormal cervical smear test results.
Women from more deprived areas are less likely to undergo surgery for colorectal cancer and have lower survival rates than those from more affluent areas.
Women from lower socio-economic groups have a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease, the major cause of death among Irish women.
Women experiencing a heart attack are more likely than men to be misdiagnosed and less likely than men to be referred to a specialist
Women undertake the majority of unpaid care work,which can have a negative impact on their mental and physical health, in that it can lead to exhaustion,depression, headache, injury and greater vulnerability to illness generally.
Evidence has shown that some lesbians may experience discrimination in health care. Research has shown that lesbians are less likely to receive regular pap smears to test for cervical cancer because doctors incorrectly assume that they are not at risk of sexually transmitted disease. Systemic homophobia, stigmatisation and marginalisation negatively impact on the health of lesbians and bisexual women, who may, as a result be at disproportionately higher risk for behaviours that endanger their health, such as substance abuse and obesity.
Women live longer than men and their unequal access to economic resources means that they are at greater risk of dependency, isolation and poverty as they age. Older women are more likely to experience chronic and disabling illness. They are at risk of abuse,including financial exploitation. Older women are at a higher risk of developing cancer and, in Ireland, are much less likely to receive treatment than younger women.Young Women: 90% of people with anorexia are women, which commonly occurs among adolescent girls and young women in their early twenties, while bulimia occurs predominantly among women between the ages of 15 and 25 years.
