During a press conference, women’s health specialists commented on new figures published on this major issue.
- Globally, 40% of women said they had not spoken to a healthcare professional in the past year.
- About 1.5 billion have not been tested for four common diseases that affect women’s health: STDs, diabetes, hypertension and cancers.
According to the new global women’s health index developed by Hologic, many areas for improvement exist to better support French women.
Not enough screening
At the screening level, first. Only 47% of women in our country say they have had a screening test during their lifetime for high blood pressure, 17% for diabetes, 13% for cancer and 6% for STIs.
“Currently, in France, 40 to 45% of the women concerned by these recommendations do not get tested”lamented at a press conference Philippe Descamps, head of the Gyneco-Obstetrics department at the University Hospital of Angers and vice-president of the International Federation of Obstetrics Gynecology. “The explanations are multiple: the women concerned may come from modest or precarious sociological backgrounds and benefit from bad information, sometimes the gynecological examination may be refused for cultural reasons or because of trauma related to sexual violence, but it would be wrong not to cite here the “French evil”, which is characterized by a refusal to benefit from certain health care services that are nevertheless made available free of charge. It is difficult to provide a rational explanation, but it is certain that a certain distrust of health authorities and policies exists in France”, he continues.
Surprising dissatisfactions
In addition, 71% of French women are satisfied with access to healthcare in France, ie 14% less than the European average (85%). Another surprising figure: nearly 10% of respondents believe that pregnant women do not receive quality care.
“This figure is striking: that 9% of women in France are not satisfied with the care provided to pregnant women is at first sight very surprising: the quality of care that punctuates the institutionalized course of French pregnancy monitoring, fully reimbursed and benefiting all women in the territory, is remarkable”, comments Amina Yamgnane, gynecologist at the maternity ward of the American Hospital of Paris and founder of La Clinique des Femmes. “But if we decide to assess this figure by comparing it to the 12% of women who say they had a bad experience of childbirth, it becomes clearer”analyzes the specialist.
Domestic violence
The French are also particularly tense. 37% and 35% say they have experienced feelings of anxiety or stress at least once during the day preceding the survey.
Finally, 79% of the women questioned think that domestic violence has become a major and widespread problem in France. “It does not seem to me that this figure should be translated as being the reflection of a drastic increase in violence against women in our country, but as that of the emergence in the public and media space of a subject which was not a social problem 10 years ago”, concludes Ghada Hatem, obstetrician-gynecologist, founder and chief physician of La Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis.
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