In your initial post this week, include your findings and what stands out to you based on your 3 conversations, related to gender and health & illness. Use examples from your own experiences (if you are a woman) or of a woman you know, those of the people you spoke to, and/or take examples from the readings and video this week to explain how women's health issues are connected to larger social factors.
I have always considered health to be the sum of my physical well-being and my mental well-being. These two factors are interconnected, so how my body feels affects my thoughts and my emotions, and vice versa. For myself, to be healthy means my body and my mind are in balance with each other. Physically, I would be free of illness or injury. Mentally, I would be able to think clearly, manage my emotions properly, and think positively.
Three people I talked to about their viewpoints on health and illness were my mother, a coworker, and my uncle.
My mother and my coworker are both women and both defined health as a purely physical state of well-being. They described being healthy as eating proper nutritional foods, exercising, and being free of …show more content…
The gender paradox of physical health refers to how women have lower mortality and higher morbidity rates compared to men (Bird & Rieke, 2008). Bird & Rieke also mentions how the paradox could be explained by the gender differences in patterns of disease, such as men having more life-threatening chronic diseases at younger age whereas women face higher rates of chronic debilitating yet non-life threatening disorders and acute conditions (2008). What also stood out to me in particular was the increased susceptibility of women to suffer from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety yet the majority of men committing suicide globally is men (WHO, 2013). I think this reflects the gender paradox of health in terms of mental
I have always considered health to be the sum of my physical well-being and my mental well-being. These two factors are interconnected, so how my body feels affects my thoughts and my emotions, and vice versa. For myself, to be healthy means my body and my mind are in balance with each other. Physically, I would be free of illness or injury. Mentally, I would be able to think clearly, manage my emotions properly, and think positively.
Three people I talked to about their viewpoints on health and illness were my mother, a coworker, and my uncle.
My mother and my coworker are both women and both defined health as a purely physical state of well-being. They described being healthy as eating proper nutritional foods, exercising, and being free of …show more content…
The gender paradox of physical health refers to how women have lower mortality and higher morbidity rates compared to men (Bird & Rieke, 2008). Bird & Rieke also mentions how the paradox could be explained by the gender differences in patterns of disease, such as men having more life-threatening chronic diseases at younger age whereas women face higher rates of chronic debilitating yet non-life threatening disorders and acute conditions (2008). What also stood out to me in particular was the increased susceptibility of women to suffer from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety yet the majority of men committing suicide globally is men (WHO, 2013). I think this reflects the gender paradox of health in terms of mental