Dr Geetha Nagasree is leading the surgical oncology department at Care Hospitals
Women’s Health Issues: Choose to Challenge the Diseases Unique to Women
Being a woman Put You at an increased risk of these health conditions
The risk of breast cancer increases in women after age 30 and further augments manifolds once a woman reaches menopause and thereafter. If statistics are to be believed, there is a rampant shift of breast cancer incidences in relatively younger women as more than 25% of cases of breast cancer is being detected in women younger than 25 to 35 years age. This scenario is quite alarming in India when compared to elsewhere in the world. According to a report released by ICMR 2020, the burden of breast cancer cases has recently seen a surge in all the major metropolitan cities in India – Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Women Tend to Ignore Their Health
Oncologists and gynecologic oncologists recommend women to pay attention to their bodies as a majority of women are neglecting their health issues working under high-intensity corporate culture.
Once you are under tremendous pressure and adapted to working in a high-pressure corporate environment, you tend to ignore yourself – as you don’t have time to pay attention and look deep inside yourself to know whether something wrong is going on inside. This is really a bitter truth
Cancers in Women are Asymptomatic
Another cause for concern for the majority of women is the fact that they take things seriously only when they see some visual signs – rather apparent signs and symptoms. This is in fact a major fallacy on their part because most of the major diseases of women and some very serious conditions – such as breast cancer and ovarian cancers do not show any symptoms in the initial stages.
Learn more about Ovarian and breast cancers
Certain types of breast cancers and ovarian cancers tend to go unnoticed even in the advanced stages due to their symptoms that often mimic symptoms of less serious health issues – such as indigestion, heartburn, abdominal discomfort. Even other serious health issues in women – for instance – heart attacks often go unnoticed and, in some cases, go without being detected or misdiagnosed as well.
Read more: Heart attack symptoms in women differ from men.
Women’s health issues -Unique to Them: Women are more prone to certain health conditions in general including anxiety, depression, osteoporosis, back pain, urinary tract infections, and premenstrual syndrome, and PCOS. Meet a specialist doctor to learn more about the measures that you can take to minimize the risk of these conditions.
Bottom Line
Awareness is Key to the prevention of diseases or at least minimizing the risk. The next important aspect is prompt action – approaching a specialist in time to rule out any hidden or underlying health issue. A majority of women think that they are leading healthy lives by following a healthy lifestyle, but the biggest question here is – are they completely aware of all the major health issues that are unique to them and to which they can become prone to at some point during their reproductive life or after menopause? The irony is that they are not!
Let us come together and join hands on this “International Women’s Day” and choose to challenge all the major health issues that are unique to us. Let us take a step forward towards creating awareness.
Read more – What is My Personal Risk of Breast Cancer?
What is My Personal Risk of Ovarian Cancer?
What Should I Do to Prevent Breast Cancer?
