What is Women's Health ?
What is the definition of women’s health? Women’s health refers to the health of women, which is an example of population health. Health defined by WHO as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity “.Women’s health always simply mistreated as reproductive health. WHO considers that an undue emphasis on reproductive health has been a major barrier to ensuring access to good quality healthcare for all women. In fact, women’s health comprises of reproductive health ( maternal and child health, breast health, genital health, birth control, menstruation, menopause ) and non-reproductive health (non-communicable disesases like CVS diseases, DM, cancer, mental health, bone health etc.)
Women play a very important role in the society nowadays as it may affect GDP of a country, for example, Michelle Obama, former First Lady of United States, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Candidate, US. Hence taking good care of women’s health is a MUST-TO-DO list.
One of the really sad body image truths I have discovered in my work is the fact that many women only come to embrace their bodies for what they can do versus how they look when one of two things happen : they get much older, like in their 50s or 60s, or they experience some sort of life-threatening events, like cancer.
In this era, most women are more focus on body image issues, which make them total unaware of their general health. They will stand in front of the mirror and keep asking : ‘ why my butt is so big?’ ‘ why I have a flat chest?’ “why I look so fat?” etc. Almost all women have something they hate about their body. By creating advertisement with unrealistic images of beauty, it has resulted in anxiety, low self-confidence in many women and end up greater numbers of young women especially are now going under the knife. They are unaware of the hidden dangers of cosmetic surgery. Patients may never be fully prepared for the mental and emotional costs of the surgery. The failure cases will cause most experience some degree of depression which indirectly lead to deteriorating of women’s health.
Do you know your body system is the one to help you in delay aging and stay younger and fresher? Not the body image! Life sciences are going to change a lot in this 21st century. People live longer but doesn’t mean you live healthy and happy. If you don’t have good health(internally) but just the “perfect body image”, do you think u can live healthy and happier?
There are even genetic screening tests available nowadays to indicate if an individual has a predisposition for genetic disease, condition or trait. Such pre-symptomatic genetic screening detects the likelihood of developing a disease, therefore can help us in prevention of diseases. There is a great quote : “Our genetic load the gun and our environment pulls the trigger.” It’s from a book on obesity by Judith Stern, a renowned Nutritionist and Obesity Expert from University of California-Davis.
So, ladies, gear up and be responsible for your own health. Make sure you have a healthy eating habits, regular exercise, enough sleep, manage your stress wisely, regular health check to make you stay HEALTHY, live LONGER and HAPPIER.
Dr Ong SY
Women’s Health Wellness Physician
Osel Group