BlogHer - Women's Health Risks: Perception vs Reality - Comments

Well Put

karencsidhu — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:47:10 -0600

I couldn't of said it better myself...I wish you all the best with your health and wish you and your family a healthy and happy life together....

My Experience

karencsidhu — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:42:12 -0600

I work at the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Canada as a Manager and I can assure all of you that we have very little discretionary money to throw at any marketing. In Canada, we collectively as provinces support a national office to get the most media bang for the buck. Many women have suffered from Breast Cancer and many women have suffered terribly from heart attacks and strokes. I know one family member who is reminded daily of her stroke when she sees her friends playing in gym or on the playground and she is 14 years old.

Our research dollars have funded many ground breaking research projects that have resulted in drugs to eliminate long term affects of stroke, surgery on babies before they are born, smaller pacemakers, lobbying governments to eliminate trans fats in schools and educational programs in hospitals to support patients. Recently, the University of British Columbia has announced a vaccine for high risk stroke patients that was developed as a direct result from funding from our foundation.

My niece had a stroke at 11. This devastated our family and is why I do what I do. We have much work to do to enlighten women about their risks and the fact that over 500,000 women in the US will die of CVD. I challenge every woman to say in the same breath I need to get my heart and breast checkup. It's up to us to change this awareness and with your help during heart month in February, we can make a difference. Women sometime are their own worst enemy when it comes to taking care of themselves. When you book your doctor appointment, demand a blood test for high cholesterol and ensure you have your blood pressure checked.

Why Can't All the Diseases Get Along?

lagkelly — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:03:34 -0500

As a survivor of Ovarian Cancer I have to say that is one disease under the radar in comparison to heart disease and breast cancer.

That being said had it not been for breast cancer awareness month in October I wouldn't had gone for my first mammogram this month and the small mass in my right breast wouldn't have been found.

And heart disease? Well my father had his first heart attack at the age of 37 with 4 to follow, triple bypass, a difribulator and I lost my grandfather to a heart attack 10 years ago. My grandmother (my father's mother) and my father both have congenital heart failure so do I need any more awareness there?

Drape me in a rainbow of ribbons...please.

I've lost too many people to heart disease and cancer. I'm passionate about awareness. There are 12 months in a year and the beauty about that is that each organization gets highlighted to promote awareness. Breast cancer has just been doing it a little longer.

http://www.notthecword.com

Debra, in my experience,

smartl — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 17:59:09 -0500

Debra, in my experience, marketers for charities have limited budgets so you are right to state that it's difficult when the only way to ensure information gets out there is to pay for it. But I also believe that savvy marketers for charities have a responsibility to be creative with a limited budget, that's their role. They should be creating partnerships with corporations that have the big bucks they lack, or obtaining sponsorship dollars in some way. They don't necessarily have to pay for everything themselves. There are corporations out there that need to improve their "community involvement" profiles who just may throw some dollars the way of a needy charity if only they would propose something unique.

That's not to say that the media doesn't have a responsibility also. I'd like to see more coverage of health causes like you described, and I think it's a great idea to encourage women to talk about heart disease and other health problems that don't get as much coverage as breast cancer.

I just wish that discussions of increasing the awareness surrounding heart disease doesn't always have to rat on breast cancer campaigns. Can't we just do some positive word-of-mouth for lipid profiles without detracting from the progress that's been made for mammograms?

Maybe I'm just too sensitive because I've known so many people who've suffered from breast cancer and I personally walked in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer in August, but increasing awareness of one disease shouldn't be at the expense of another charity's good work.

I guess I take a slightly different approach..

debra roby — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 14:03:34 -0500

I find it really interesting that smarti and Sassy say that other health concerns need better marketing. Like the only way for information to get out there is if someone pays for it somehow.

I believe that it's the responsibility of media (news, magazine, websites like this one) that have a strong adult and/or female audience to:

-educate and inform.

-talk as much about colon cancer, lung cancer, heart disease and pulmonary disease as they do about breast cancer.

-do what Denise did and WRITE about the disconnect between many women's perception and reality.

And I believe it is the responsibility of each woman to step up and equally push and support others to broaden their health awareness. Atleast 4 times a year, I hear a woman at some function proudly encourage every female in the audience to get their annual mammos. And they typically scowl when I "coat-tail" to thier pronouncement to get their annual lipid profile, too.

Don't do that.

Just add that extra phrase and that extra encouragement freely and enthusiastically. Expand the options. Expand the advocacy. Not because you work for some non-profit that espouses the cause, but because you are a woman and need to advocate for all our health concerns. Including the most important ones.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

No guarantees

sassymonkey — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 10:48:08 -0500

I think the thing with breast cancer is that there are no guarantees. It strikes randomly and without discrimination. You can do everything "right" - you can eat well, exercise, decrease stress, get regular mammograms, etc - and it can still get you. There's no real way to prevent it although living a healthy lifestyle can help. And it attacks a part of us that we strongly identify with our female identity - our breasts. True, men can get breast cancer (although we rarely hear about it) but the clear majority of of diagnoses are women. It unites us in that we all feel vulnerable. Is this due to marketing? Possibly. I'm not really old enough to really remember very a well a time before the October campaign so I really can't judge that.

With heart disease and strokes we feel like we have the power to prevent them. We can eat better, we can exercise and it just might work. There are no guarantees with that either but we feel like we have more control and have something to blame. Are we doing enough to prevent heart disease and stroke? No, not even close. I'm with the others in saying that they need better marketers and a bigger voice.

Sassymonkey, Sassymonkey Reads, and Sassymonkey Eats

Why all the hating on the

smartl — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 01:13:13 -0500

Why all the hating on the breast cancer campaigns on this site lately? I'm literally baffled by this. Denise, how can you say "I have to wonder if our deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer aren't high, in part, because we're so busy worrying about breast and ovarian cancer that we're ignoring the real problems." It's not to take away from the fact that heart and lung diseases are real problems, but how can you state that breast and ovarian cancer are NOT real problems? They affect thousands upon thousands of women annually! When you make sweeping, careless statements like that, you sweep the suffering and deaths of affected women under the rug as though they don't matter because they're not as numerous as other problems. The breast cancer campaigns have saved lives, and in my opinion, if they had saved even just one, that makes them a worthwhile success. I give my hearty kudos to the charities for successfully raising funds for their causes and the collective awareness of North America about a very real, very scary problem and making some major headway towards a cure.

Yes, I believe breast cancer gets more attention and worry in women because they have more marketing dollars. Don't make them out as evil for this reason. That just means that the people they've hired to do their marketing campaigns are worth their salaries.

Rather, heart disease and lung cancer organizations need to step up their efforts. I recognise that charities don't necessarily have big money for flashy campaigns, so they need to research methods that will get the biggest bang for their bucks, get creative, and create smart partnerships.

Amen, Sistah!!

debra roby — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:34:04 -0500

Or is it good marketing?? Have campaigns like the pink ribbon stuff skewed women's interpretation of their risk?

I've wondered the same thing. And asked this for ages, without getting any good answer. The only answer I got (once) was that watching a woman die from bone cancer (metastasized from breast cancer), was more horrific than having a woman simply and quickly die from a heart attack. A really bad answer IMHO.

My personal reaction to this (since heart disease and Alzheimer's are my personal bugaboos) is every time I hear a woman tell a group: "make sure you get your annual mammogram." I step up and add: and since heart disease is a woman's #1 killer, get a lipid profile at the same time."

Why is OK to advocate loudly and constantly for one without with other?

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Women's Health Risks: Perception vs Reality

Denise — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 18:02:29 -0500

One out of two women in the United States will die from heart disease or stroke. So why do women fear breast cancer more than any other health risk?

Women also believe ovarian cancer is their biggest "cancer" threat when it is actually lung cancer that kills 70,000 women a year.

From the CDC, here are the
leading causes of death for women in 2002: Heart Disease, Stroke and Cancer.

So why the disconnect between perception and reality? Is it because we think of heart disease as a man's disease? Is it because breast cancer is the most often diagnosed cancer in women?

I have to wonder if our deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer aren't high, in part, because we're so busy worrying about breast and ovarian cancer that we're ignoring the real problems.

~Denise
Daily Dose of Denise and Fast Times @ Homeschool High

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