Gender medicine: Women's issues out of the taboo corner

Equality in society: In many areas it works, in others it doesn’t. One of these is the health sector. Health literacy and care issues in this country are still predominantly female-centric. Traditional gender stereotypes are still very much present, Assignswomen the role of carers and those who take care of others.

It is mainly women who work in nursing professions, medical practices and Pharmacies work. In families, they are the ones who manage health matters, who take care of vaccination and preventive care appointments for the Children think about caring for relatives in need of care. But prevention and health management are not exclusively female tasks. How to strengthen health literacy overall and better consider gender-specific needs was the topic of an event organized by the AOK Federal Association in Berlin today.

In order to focus more on the topic of health in general and the different sensitivities of men and women, it is important to raise awareness in schools, emphasized Anne Högemann, chairwoman of the Medical Society for Health Promotion. It is about making it clear to young girls at an early age that they are not alone with their specific health problems, such as period pain or hormonal mood swings, but that they affect many others. It is good that topics such as endometriosis or menopause are slowly becoming less of a taboo subject. But we are still at the beginning. It is also important to involve boys and to provide more health education in schools.

Nicoletta Wischnewski, head of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Health Department, also emphasized that health topics should be addressed in schools as early as possible. She calls for health education to be included as a school subject. There is a need to finally raise awareness of the value of prevention, for example, with regard to unwanted teenage pregnancies.