My esophageal stricture is acting up today, resulting in inability to keep food down (I’m doing liquids), so I thought I’d start by investigating how nonfatal chronic conditions are treated. My hypothesis is that more women than men suffer from them, therefore they are mostly ignored.
Welp, I was wrong about esophageal stricture. Mostly a result of GERD, at younger ages it is more prevalent in men. At older ages, about the same prevalence in men and women. It also has no racial bias. This may be why it’s aggressively treated with medications and when they fail, esophageal dilations. However, “ complications after procedures such as dilation of esophageal stricture can increase mortality.” And that is why I delay dilations. Although I’ve had about 40-50 of them to date! They are done under general anesthesia (causing at least a month of brain fog afterward IMO) and can damage the throat, including tearing the esophagus (which I haven’t had, fingers and paws crossed!) and scarring (which I have). Of course, I’m also delaying treatment right now because of the Covid surge. But for something that one can live with (if uncomfortably), treatment seems a bit overdone and temporary. We need more and better medications!
Now let’s turn to fibromyalgia. It affects men, women and children, but 75-90% of fibromyalgia patients are women. Between this prevalence, women having more symptoms, and pain being a symptom that is not visible, for a very long time fibromyalgia was dismissed. It may be to some extent affected by hormones, but its study is still in its infancy. “Awareness of fibromyalgia has grown dramatically in the general public, the media, and the medical community over the last 10 years, but much work remains to be done.” It became “real” in 2008, when a drug was developed that treated it reasonably well! Interestingly, although women report more fatigue, hurting all over, and associated symptoms, physical functioning between men and women is no different. We’re tough. Still, again, we need more and better medications!
Migraines also affect men, women and children, but mostly women. About one in four women in the US will have a migraine at some point in their lives. About 85% of those with chronic migraines are women. And it is extremely disabling, with about 4 million Americans having daily migraines and so more than 90% are unable to work. Yet migraines are understudied, undertreated, underfunded. Lots of appalling statistics at the link! Again, more and better medications are needed, especially those that will prevent attacks.
The field of Medicine needs to do much better, for women and for all of us.
I couldn’t find any petitions, but tell your Senators that you support increased funding for the NIH, including Biden’s proposed Advanced Research Project Agency “accelerating the pace of biomedical innovation,”“new funding for health disparities research,” and “the All of Us precision medicine initiative”. This has all passed the House.