Fw: TOXIC NEWS & VIEWS ON - THE WOMAN DISEASE

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----- Original Message -----

From: " Kathi " <pureheart@...>

Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 4:51 PM

Subject: " TOXIC " NEWS & VIEWS ON - THE WOMAN DISEASE

> Mother MJ93: Woman: the disease

>

> Inlander

>

> Everybody knows the stereotype: when a man experiences stress on the

> job, his supervisor tells him to take a vacation. A woman is told to see

> a doctor. Crow's feet on a man are often considered a sign of dignity or

> " aging with grace. " But on a woman they are an invitation to plastic

> surgery.

>

> It's almost as if the word " woman " is a medical diagnosis: being a woman

> is a disease just waiting to be treated. Women are the cash cows of

> medicine, since they generate hundreds of billions of dollars for the

> medical system. Some of the biggest medical scandals have been

> perpetrated on women: they have been given DES (diethylstilbestrol) and

> thalidomide and have endured assaults such as the Dalkon Shield, Toxic

> Shock Syndrome, and, most recently, breast implants.

>

> Consider the hysterectomy, the second most frequently performed surgery

> in the United States, at double the rates of England and other European

> countries. Between 1985 and

> 1987, 11 percent of the two million hysterectomies performed were to

> remove life-threatening cancer; the rest were to treat conditions that

> might have been corrected by other means. By age sixty, about one out of

> three women in this country will have had a hysterectomy.

>

> Perhaps it's no coincidence that hysterectomy rates are higher in

> communities with more doctors and hospitals--places like the wealthy

> suburbs of big cities. It's a fact that private insurance pays more for

> the procedure than Medicaid, so doctors may be less likely to recommend

> a hysterectomy to a poor, uninsured woman. And interestingly, the

> hysterectomy rate in the South is almost double that of any other region

> in the country.

>

> The rate of another frequent surgical procedure performed on women,

> cesarean sections, has risen to 23.5 percent in 1990 from 5.5 percent in

> 1970. Yet both the infant mortality rate and the number of women dying

> in childbirth held constant during that period. While a doctor may tell

> an expectant mother that either she or her baby is at high risk, many

> doctors are performing more C-sections because they fear being sued for

> negligence, want to speed the delivery, or have a financial incentive.

> Doctors charge an average of $7,826 for a C- section, or two-thirds more

> than for a vaginal birth.

>

> Psychiatrists and psychologists also reap financial gains from women,

> who make up the majority of their patients. Additionally, the majority

> of tranquilizers are prescribed to treat women.

>

> Along with all that, doctors are becoming glorified beauticians and are

> doing it in the name of science. And subspecialties are being created

> merely to direct the dollar flow, rather than to meet a medical need.

> Sports gynecology, for example, is a subspecialty that came into

> existence only after women started to jog.

>

> American medicine continues to be dominated by men. Male doctors

> outnumber female doctors by five to one; the latest figures show 26,000

> male gynecologists vs. 7,500 females. Sadly, even the great influx of

> women into doctoring, the more highly educated women in nursing, and the

> feminist awakenings of the last twenty years have had little effect on

> the trend. Women--and men--must demand accountability from the medical

> profession.

>

> -- Inlander

> --------------

> Toxic Discovery Network

> 1906 Grant Lane Columbia, MO. 65203 Phone: (573) 445-8700 Fax: (573)

> 445-4700 www.toxicdiscovery.com " Informed Consent Begins With Informed

> Individuals "

>

>