TAll sociological studies agree. “To that extent, it’s angry,” says Johanna Daghorn, a Bordeaux sociologist specializing in gender equality issues. For her part, Berenger Arnal, a former gynaecologist, naturopath, widens her eyes. ” How ? Do women care less than men? What can I say: for thirty-five years in my practice, I dealt only with women, according to my theory the person was to be fully cared for. » And yet… that was a cardiologist who was the first…
TAll sociological studies agree. “To that extent, it’s angry,” says Johanna Daghorn, a Bordeaux sociologist specializing in gender equality issues. For her part, Berenger Arnal, a former gynaecologist, naturopath, widens her eyes. ” How ? Do women care less than men? What can I say: for thirty-five years in my practice, I dealt only with women, according to my theory the person was to be fully cared for. » And yet… this Cardiologists were the first to point out the condition; 75,000 women die each year in France following heart attacks, the leading cause of death among women. Heart attacks, far behind strokes, are breast cancer, with 12,000 deaths.
Johanna Daghorn is a sociologist in Bordeaux, specializing in gender equality.
experts
Clearly, according to statistics from the Agir pour le cœur des femmes association, 30% of myocardial infarction victims are women under the age of 55. Cardiovascular diseases reach an alarming mortality rate, because three-quarters of the time, they come suddenly, the woman was not detected early. The association was pioneered by Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier, a cardiologist at the Lille University Hospital, and has since been emulated. Aud Mignot, a cardiologist in Bordeaux, follows the movement. And presto, the first hypothesis to be thrown by the wayside: “Most people don’t know that women have risk factors too, because there is still the hypothesis that heart attacks are a male accident., And women are protected by their hormones. In fact, today they are affected at younger and younger ages, starting in their forties. for what Lifestyle habits have changed: intense professional life, stress, mental workload, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, overweight, alcohol. After menopause, women’s risk exceeds that of men in terms of stroke and myocardial infarction. »
Harder on evil and less self-centered
An observation shared by Berengere Arnal: “The risk is real but it has not yet become common practice. What surprises me about the fact that women are less cared for is that I think they are more monitored, in any case, gynecologically, and because of their pregnancy. One thing is certain, they are more difficult to deal with, because they had a period, from adolescence, when they had to deal with more or less intense pain. Without complaining too much. As if suffering were part of the woman’s condition…”
This is where Johanna Dagorn, the sociologist, comes in. “And if they complain, are they heard, like men for example? We always come back to the same thing, the myth of hysteria. How often do they hear “it’s all in your head, ma’am”? Men are considered more, we believe them. Women, no. They say they are stressed, angry, agitated, that they might have their period! »
Johanna Daghorn, who works in sociology in the field of sexism, mentions the work of a colleague, Anita Maidani, a health sociologist in Toulouse, who in 2017 published a study “When Cancer Connects to Gender.” “Everything is said there,” assures Johanna Daghorn. Whatever the field of inquiry, women always lag behind. It’s incredible how well old myths hold up. The fact that men are more reliable in front of the doctor has consequences. If she complains of palpitations, we’ll tell her she’s under stress, but if she’s a man, we’ll refer her to a cardiologist. A paradox highlighted by Anita Maidani is that women consult doctors more, but are less listened to. Added to this paradox is the fact that they tolerate pain more, so we should believe them more when they complain! »
A clinical trial based on men
The WHO (World Health Organization) has highlighted that the proportion of women in clinical trials for the implementation of new drugs has increased from 35% in 1995 to 58% in 2018. This means that most medical treatments are tested on men, but biologically, women present significant differences. Adverse effects seen in men may occur in women. A little improvement for the road? Most of the calls received by the emergency services and SAMU are made by women, but… not for them. When it comes to them, they call 15 minutes later than men. Hard on evil.
