Medical Problems of Women

Abstract

There is currently growing interest amongst both health care professionals and the general public in the contribution of psychology to the understanding and management of women’s medical and surgical problems. In many ways, this interest is a reflection of the development of behavioral medicine and the increasing contribution that psychologists are making to all areas of medical research and practice. Some of the ‘medical problems of women’ that have received the attention of psychologists have exact parallels amongst medical problems of men and give rise to no specific difficulties as a result of the sex of the patient. General issues concerning, for example: compliance with treatment regimes, preparation for surgery, problems resulting from smoking, alcoholism and other addictions, as well as the problems of certain chronic diseases such as arthritis and diabetes, involve similar problems for both men and women. However, some of the difficulties for which women consult the medical profession are clearly not shared with male patients and pose problems quite specific to their sex. These include primarly those problems that arise from women‘s reproductive functions and which obviously include processes such as conception, contraception, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, menopausal changes, menstruation, carcinoma and surgical intervention of women‘s reproductive organs. There are also problems which, although not exclusively experienced by women, are nevertheless experienced much more frequently by women, such as cancer of the breast.