Part 2 of a 2-part series

As we discussed in part one of this series, women are fundamentally different from men on a cellular level, which can lead to different health issues. Here we’ll examine three additional concerns common among women: reproductive health, diabetes and mental health.

Today, more and more women are waiting to start a family, many until their late 30s or 40s. Unfortunately, many of these women are blindsided when, after deciding to become pregnant, they encounter difficulties.

The issue has become so important that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine addresses it in detail in its “Protect Your Fertility” campaign.¹ If you’ve got female patients of childbearing age who have decided to postpone starting a family, or women of advancing age who have not been able to get pregnant as quickly as they anticipated, there are a few points it might be helpful to gently point out to them.

•  Age matters.

It’s a sad fact, but fertility declines with advancing age. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, healthy couples in their 20s or early 30s have about a 25 to 30 percent chance of becoming pregnant during any menstrual cycle; this chance starts to drop in a woman’s early 30s and drops more quickly after the age of 37. By the age of 40, a woman has less than a 10 percent chance of getting pregnant per cycle.²

• Women have a finite number of eggs.

Women are born with a certain number of eggs, and they are not replenished.2 In addition, the quality of a woman’s eggs deteriorates over time.

• Pregnancy losses increase.

Due to the quality of her eggs and other factors, a woman’s age can affect the viability of a pregnancy should she conceive. According to a 2019 study in BMJ, among more than 420,000 pregnancies studied, the risk of miscarriage was about 10 percent among women aged 25 to 29. Miscarriage rates rose rapidly after the age of 30 and continued to rise with age. Women aged 45 and over had a miscarriage risk of 53 percent.³

• Medicine may not be a viable option.

Some women have come to view medicine as being a cure-all for virtually everything — fertility included. But unfortunately, therapies cannot reverse the effects of age.

Many women are concerned about developing Type 2 diabetes, and for good reason: The disease has reached epidemic levels worldwide. According to 2020 estimates from the CDC, as of 2018, 34.1 million U.S. adults, or 13.0 percent of all people aged 18 and older, have diabetes. And while men tend to experience higher rates of the disease overall, women have higher rates among certain populations (American Indian/Alaska Native and Black, non-Hispanic).⁴

The good news for your patients is that positive lifestyle changes alone can prevent approximately 90 percent of prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes cases, the Harvard School of Public Health reports. The basics of prevention can be summed up in five words, Harvard experts say: “Stay lean and stay active.”⁵

If it seems you have more female patients presenting with symptoms of depression and anxiety or other somatic complaints, chances are your hunch is right. According to a report from the World Health Organization, evidence suggests that women do tend to suffer more from these conditions than men. In fact, citing depression as the most common mental-health condition among women, and suicide as a leading cause of death among women under the age of 60, the WHO says it is vital that healthcare providers make women aware of the importance of mental health.⁹

The WHO report was written in 2015, mind you. Add in the numerous difficulties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for mental-health screening becomes that much more apparent.

The female psyche and body are unique and wonderful, and every woman in your practice deserves to be respected and honored, both physically and emotionally. We hope that with these articles, we’ve given you and your staff the tools to do just that.