Happy Monday treehouse! Wishing everyone a restful and recuperative week enjoying the holidays. 
Excitingly, 4 days ago, it was announced that England has plans to appoint a women’s health ambassador to reduce health inequality - with more information to come following publication of the Women’s Health Strategy in Spring 2022. The review found that across every age group, “women face hurdles in accessing the medical care or information they need,” and it also revealed that “over three-quarters of women feel that the healthcare service has not listened!”
Now I hardly think these are findings reserved to women’s experience of the healthcare system, but it does help to illustrate just how great of an opportunity (and necessity) there is for major change.
For example, I was shocked to find out recently that women were not legally required as participants in clinical trials until as late as 1993!! (Liu & Mager, 2016)
Low and behold, the vast majority of prescriptions drugs were clinically trialed and approved long before that time - meaning the unique effects of certain medications on women are only just beginning to be fully understood.
Personally I struggle in trying to balance my amazement in how far modern science has come, and trying not to feel disappointed in how far modern healthcare still has to go. I’ve had such mixed experiences with doctors (both in the US and the US) and it can be so frustrating to not be taken seriously as the owner and sole operator of your own body.
Imagining a future filled with plants provides some relief, and I’m optimistic that things are slowly beginning to change. What about you?
Now off to drink some chamomile to quell the feminism rage… HA! 