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Comment by whateveracct | Hacker News Reader

People are arguing about the use of mice etc..but it has been shown that medical care is male-oriented which negative affects female outcomes (heart disease and attacks for example.)

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> but it has been shown that medical care is male-oriented which negative affects female outcomes

I'm new to this idea. Where has it been shown? What level or aspect is it male-oriented? What negative affects are there?

Symptoms of heart attacks in men and women are different. All the commonly known symptoms are male symptoms to the point that even medical professionals can not realize that a woman is having a heart attack.

Yep. There are plenty of anecdotes out there of women having life-threatening heart issues and being told by their doctor that they are overreacting or suffering from anxiety due to their symptoms differing from male symptoms.

NIH spends 700 million on breast cancer vs 250 million on prostate cancer. This shows a chauvinist and paternalistic attitude toward healthcare for women who are considered by the male dominated government to be children incapable of taking care of themselves and need the support of men.

There are legitimate ways in which medical care is male-oriented. As another commenter says, heart attack symptoms vary by gender but this is not always understood by healthcare practitioners [0].

[0]: https://www.allinahealth.org/healthysetgo/heal/heart-attack-...

Regarding cybersnowflake's comment, I think this is relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

The budget for medical care shows the opposite. Women receive a larger share of money for treatments (https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...) and a larger share of money goes into women research in Medical Research (https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/08/go...).

Women has a significantly higher mean number of visits to their primary care clinic and diagnostic services than men (https://www.mdedge.com/familymedicine/article/60747/womens-h...). The National Center for Health Statistics found that women made 30% more visits to physicians’ offices than men between 1995 and 20112.

If we then look at specific outcomes, lets compared cancer, stroke and hearth attacks. Cancer survival rate is higher for women then men when accounting for age. Men also has a higher risk for cancer, which remain when accounting for age group.

In regard to stroke the risk increases by age group as does mortality. Men are at higher risk of stroke for most age groups below age 85 years, and over 85 the incidence reverses dramatically. Outcomes is slightly worse for women but is mainly attributed to the higher age group, and there does not seem to be any difference in outcome when accounting for age.

Last hearth attack, where survival rate is higher for men then women when accounting for age. Men however is at higher risk for hearth attack and at younger age groups.

If anything, the majority of time medical care is female-oriented which negative affects male outcomes. The money, the research and the utilization of medical facilities goes more to women then men. Hearth attack outcomes is an exception and a lot of work is being done to address it, and hearth attack is go to argument when people want to argue that the health care system is discriminating against women.

> but it has been shown that medical care is male-oriented which negative affects female outcome

Which is also why men live much longer than women, I assume?

Medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the US, so male-oriented care may indeed be why women live longer.

That's something else, but nice try.

I'm serious. Men tend not to see doctors, and when they do, it's usually taken seriously. That leads to interventions which can have significant risks. Medical errors are behind only heart disease and cancer and ahead of all respiratory disease, as a leading cause of death in the US, according to John Hopkins.

"10 percent of all U.S. deaths are now due to medical error."

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_su...

Indeed, the gap in life expectancy really makes you think.

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