Semester Reflections

Throughout the semester, this course has covered many topics and issues concerning women’s health. Many of the things that we learned influenced me in several ways whether it was concerning my health or the health of my friends and family. There were two particular issues that were significant to me, which was the issue of genital mutilation and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Genital mutilation was something that I knew about but I never realized the severity of this practice, especially how common it was in several countries. HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that plagues many countries of the world, especially Africa. I knew someone who died from AIDS that was real close to our family and that disease will tear your body to shreds before it kills. We watched this man live in pain for a long time before he died. I wish this disease had a cure so that it will stop killing people. It is unfortunate to see that many women die from this disease but the truth is…women are the more vulnerable gender and tend to be more affected by everything as compared to men. I just hope that people will learn to protect themselves so that this issue can start getting better and not continue to get worse. The domestic abuse/violence issue was also something that interested me because of the fact that it is actually very common. That is something that came as a shock to me and it was also really scary to think that many women undergo domestic abuse at some point in their life. I tied this issue to personal experiences as well as things I have seen my friends go through with boyfriends who would hit them when they got into arguments. It seems like men have always felt like they have the upper-hand in everything because society allowed that to happen. I feel that when you are in relationship, the last thing you should even do is to hit your partner. It is really sad that this has arisen as a women’s health issue. I hope that women learn to realize that they do not have to take abuse from any type of person and that there is always someone out there to help them.

This class was an enjoyable learning experience. I took a women’s studies class last year and I feel like I got a WHOLE lot more learning out of this course than I did in my women’s studies class. This covered a lot of interesting topics and health issues. It has also inspired me to concentrate on my health now that I am young so that I can have a healthy adulthood. I liked the assignments that the professor provided because it seems like they were well thought out and it helped provide a background for the subjects we were covering. I hope that everyone got something out of this course, cause I sure did!!

Assault

Assualt is very common among women than it is in men. Women tend to be more vulnerable to any type of assualt whether it be physical or verbal. I think that the safest way for assault to be reduced among women is for women to take precautions like not going out too late at night. Also, they need to know the area or environment they are going to be in because if they are going to a party where there is only drugs or alcohol...anything can happen. This would not be a safe environment. In addition, women need to go places with a friend or family member and not travel alone because they are less likely to be assaulted if they are with another individual than if they are alone.

Is it a sign of personal weakness or strength for a woman to admit that she has a problem with alcohol or drugs?

One thing about mankind is that every one has a sense of pride that is naturally a part of their mentality. If a woman is able to admit that she has a problem in any aspect, it is a great sign of personal strength. Admitting that you are wrong or possibly have a problem is something that is hard for anyone to do and is an admirable thing. I personally like the fact that people are able to seek rehabilitation programs when they know that they have a drug or alcohol problem. If people begin to admit their problems and seek help for them when necessary, this would be a better world.

What can be done to reduce the stigma and shame that still surround mental illness?

The only answer that struck my mind is better inform society. Mental illness is one of those illnesses that is constantly ignored when it comes to education. It seems that no one ever focuses on mental illness because of their biases that mental illness means someone is crazy or out of place. This way of thinking tends to incorporate its way into education and people fail to force themselves to learn more about mental illness like they do regular illnesses like cardio health or reproductive health. If people will learn to stop thinking that people cause themselves to suffer from mental illness and are outcasts of society, they will also learn that many mental illnesses do begin because the individual could not control it or from some traumatic event that occurred during the person's life. People need to learn that just because they are lucky to have a state of mind that is intact, not everyone was that lucky. They need to learn to accept that mentally ill people are humans too and deserve to be treated the same way. People who are mentally ill see the poor treatments they get from people and it adds to their already diminished self-esteem, which is unfair to them because they deserve every right to be treated like others. The only way people can stop judging the mentally ill is if they take the time to learn more about mental illnesses and how it starts.

Aging Healthfully

My family has history of high blood pressure and diabetes. In order to age healthfully, I make sure that I stay away from foods with high sodium and anything with more sugar than necessary. These precautions will help keep my weight balanced so that I don’t ever become overweight. I also try to exercise a few times a week for at least thirty minutes to an hour so that I can maintain a healthy weight and achieve good cardiovascular health. One thing that I need to start doing is making sure I get ample sleep. College life tends to take away from that because of late-night studying or trying to meet deadlines for reports and papers. It is healthy to get at least six to eight hours and recently, I have noticed that sometimes I barely get four or five hours. Sleep deprivation makes aging earlier more likely, which is something I definitely do not want to do. I guess the best way to go about this is to sleep and wake up early and do homework instead of staying up all night. It will also probably increase my attentiveness in classes.

Academic Institutions Should Encourage Disease Prevention

One thing that I have come to realize about being a student and from observing fellow students is that no one will do something unless it is required. Institutions can actively participate in disease prevention by allowing the gyms to stay open for people to workout and by not charging people to use workout equipment as long as they are students at the institutions. In addition, they should require that you need a certain number of hours of health and fitness classes. This will help many people adapt physically active lifestyles or just stay fit. Many academic institutions do not provide out-of-class or in-class instructions on how to maintain a healthy heart. If institutions began to provide these types of instruction, it could positively influence the lives of many of their female students.

Diet and Exercise

Dieting and exercise have been a big problem for me since I started college two and a half years ago. My first year in college, I went through a phase that I just wanted to be skinny. I would purposely eat only animal crackers and go days or a full week without eating an actual meal. I am not anorexic, but people have always told me that if you really want to lose weight then you should starve yourself. The diet worked with me not eating and I ended up losing fifteen pounds. That summer I committed to exercising and I noticed that with a decent diet and about an hour of exercise, anyone can easily shed some pounds. Diet and exercise is a hard thing for me. I am constantly busy with school and work so I tend to just grab some fast food and go. Lately, me and my boyfriend have started cooking late at night so that we have food for the next day. This helps so that we don’t consume a lot of fast food. Exercising on the other hand is something that I have not done in awhile. I plan to start exercising so that I can slim down for my trip to Miami over the summer. Over the next five years, I want to just maintain my weight at about where it is now. I do not want to gain weight. I am going to watch my food intake and participate in more activities and daily exercise so that I can maintain my weight.

Aging

I believe people try their best to stay young because they don’t want to be old. Many young people, including myself, view old people as being unable to participate in activities that they did when they were young. I tend to see older people and it seems like I only observe the negative effects of aging, like using canes to walk, not being able to see, broken backs and hips, and disease. The concern that aging most likely brings for most people is that aging means death is getting closer. The likelihood of dying at a young age is low as compared to dying when you have past the age of forty because that is when cardiovascular disease begin and other health complications come into play. My mom owns a home care agency and I have volunteered to help the patients from time to time. Through this experience, I have seen that being old is hard. Many old people are usually sick because they did not take good care of themselves when they were young and have to deal with these complications in old age. I feel that people try to stay young to run away from the complications of being old and unattractive. Old people are ignored and it is very difficult to realize that you are getting old when you look at the way the elderly are treated in today’s society. I personally do not want to get old, but I know I won’t be young forever.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

I agree and disagree with the fact that sexually transmitted diseases are equated to immorality, promiscuous behavior, or low social status. I disagree because I have known people who contracted sexually transmitted diseases from a partner that they trusted like a long-term boyfriend or girlfriend or their husband or wife. The thing about sexually transmitted diseases that people fail to understand is that it can happen to anyone at anytime. No one is immune from sexually transmitted disease because if you have unprotected sex then you have exposed yourself to a possibility of contracting a STD. However, I also agree that these three things increase the likelihood of getting an STD. Immorality because the trust is not in the relationship; promiscuous behavior because you are exposing yourself without protection; low social status because you lack the resources to protect yourselves. Sexually transmitted diseases must be a devastating thing to experience. I knew someone that died from AIDS because his dead wife gave him the disease before she died. It is so unfair to see a life cut short because someone put their trust in someone that betrayed them. STDs have gotten to the point that married people need to sleep with condoms to protect themselves and that is very scary.

Prenatal Testing

Prenatal testing is a very dangerous procedure. It tends to take away excess fluid from the amniotic sac, which is not a safe situation to put a baby in during the gestational period. I feel that any testing that is necessitated should be held until after the birth of child to avoid retardation or slowed fetal growth. Prenatal testing has many complications that can affect the fetus. The only way it should ever be mandatory for pregnant women is if a procedure comes around that can safely test the fetus without possibility of endangerment. I have known several women, including my aunt, who underwent prenatal testing. My aunt went full term with the baby and the day she had the baby, the child was already dead. The physician felt that the still birth was linked to the prenatal testing she had done earlier in her pregnancy. I feel that this procedure is something that has so many risks that it should never be made routine.

Contraception

I come from a culture that is African-based because both my parents are Nigerian. In Nigeria, there really is no such thing as contraception. Condoms have just recently been introduced in recent years. The culture there is mainly Catholic and Catholics tend to look down on contraception. They make it seem like contraception and abortion are the same thing and feel that contraception is a way to keep a life from happening. Many cultures and religions believe in sex after marriage. However, sex is now beginning to occur more frequently before marriage and commitment and birth control is necessary. I feel that people from cultures and religions that frown upon contraception fear rejection by their own people or fellow followers so they try to avoid contraception because of what “others will think.” I feel that whether or not you are married, you should be able to decide whether or not you want to have kids or not. Americans support contraception but if I was to get on contraception and my parents found out, they would probably kick me out of the family just for the fact that I would even be involved in such a thing. I see that as protecting myself, but my parents would see it as a disgrace to the family. It’s situations like this that make it hard for people to get on contraception. I knew a girl in high school who had several kids by the time we were eighteen and it was because her culture did not believe in birth control, even if they were having sex outside of marriage. They also did not support abortion so she ended up with four kids by the age of eighteen. I thought this was ridiculous but so many people make decisions based on their culture and religion. Hopefully, these religions will someday realize it is not a crime to postpone having babies until the time is right.

Sex Education

Sex education is the teaching of responsible sexual behavior and abstinence. It has been one of the most controversial social topics due to the misconceptions of its actual benefits to society. Sex education comes in forms of abstinence-plus and abstinence only. I believe that abstinence plus is the best way because it conforms to society since young teens and adults are engaging in sexual activity. Sex education was created in an effort to instruct adolescents on sexual activities and teach them the consequences that come with being involved in sex before marriage. Sex educators have applied various methods to find creative ways to get teenagers to abide by the things they are taught from sex education. Parents are meant to be the ones to teach their children on sex, but many parents and their children share a common barrier. This barrier is most likely due to the lack and fear of communication between adolescents and their parents. It also has contributed to the worldwide problem of underage pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, abortions, and continued spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Sex education is necessary so that educators and caregivers can limit these occurrences and bring down alarming statistics to a minimum. Many parents and educators feel that sex education is good because it will cause adolescents to rethink certain decisions and participate in safe sex by use of condoms. In July of 2001, Surgeon General David Satcher wrote A Call to Action that discussed the promotion of sexual health. He wanted to convince parents that their children would not participate in sex just because they have more information on it. In his review he wrote, “Evidence gives strong support to the conclusion that providing information about contraception does not increase adolescent sexual activity…[and that] some of these evaluated programs increased condom use or contraceptive use more generally for adolescents who were sexually active.” (Morin 9). Ultimately, abstinence plus sex education is essential in today’s modernized society, because it is improving sexual awareness among adolescents. The reality is that children are having sex and they need to be educated on this issue. Sex education provides proper guidance to adolescents and gives them the opportunity to voice their opinions or even seek help if necessary. There are many children who are either misguided through peers or not guided at all by their parents or caregivers. Sex education is gradually declining the numbers of adolescents engaging in premarital sex or casual sex on a regular basis. It is a topic that has been closely looked upon by overseers. It seems to be an issue that goes either way in both the positive realm and the negative realm, but I can say that the good things outweigh the bad. Sex education has come a long way since it first began and its purpose will be accomplished as people begin to see that it is affecting teenagers in an affirmative manner.

Morin, Stephen. “Abstinence Only vs. Comprehensive Sex Education.” Policy Monograph Series 1: San Francisco: MLA, 2001

Preventive Practices

My preventive practices compare pretty good. My health can be improved in numerous ways. I need to exercise more and be more physically active. Being tied up with school, work, and other activities tends to take away from physical activity, which causes weight gain. It also causes people to become accustomed to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. School and work also cause increased stress levels which can affect blood pressure and cause insomnia. I suffer from high stress and elevated blood pressure myself. This is caused from worrying too much and staying up to late to meet deadlines and to study for my classes. However, I strive to make sure that I obtain at least five or more hours of sleep per night. In addition, I wear seatbelts and practice safe driving conditions to avoid motor accidents. I dance on a regular basis, but I need to try to engage in other forms of cardiovascular exercises in addition to dancing to obtain an optimal level of health.

Do you believe that access to healthcare is a right or a privilege?

Healthcare is a right that all individuals should have whether they are poor or wealthy. Every citizen pays taxes and most of them are employed; so it is only right that the government also make sure that everyone is offered ways to maintain their health in good standing. I do not think that healthcare should ever be considered as something that is a privilege, because everyone needs some type of minor or serious healthcare during their life. It’s not right to say that just because a person can afford healthcare then they should be the only ones receiving it. Personally, I feel that everybody deserves an opportunity at healthcare. Poor individuals or minorities do not ask to be in the disadvantaged positions that they have been placed in by society or hardships. Canada and the United Kingdom’s governments provide a limited amount of acceptable health care to all their citizens. The United States should provide this opportunity to its citizens due to the differing levels of socioeconomic status that exists today, because the lower class is put in a bad position when it comes to illness and healthcare. Every citizen contributes to the government in some manner and it is only right that healthcare be kept at an affordable rate so that all individuals can receive healthcare when it is necessitated.

Blog 1

There are many health issues that affect women of all ages. African-American women usually are more prone to heart disease like hypertension and high cholesterol. My main concerns are breast cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Diabetes and high blood pressure are of most concern because they are very prevalent diseases in my family. I had a grandfather pass away from a stroke that was complicated due to the fact that he was also a diabetic. Throughout the many years he suffered with diabetes, I watched him rapidly decline in health status and mobility. I also have several other family members with the disease, including my own father. The effect of diabetes in the Black population is devastating because it takes away many lives and people with the disease tend to struggle with loss of ligaments. Sickle-cell anemia is also a disease that runs in the family. I have three cousins with the disease and three years ago, one of them gave up. This disease to me is probably the most devastating because it kills at such a young age and when children undergo the sickle attacks, anything can happen. They can die, be in the hospital, or be perfectly fine. The hardest thing is not knowing what the outcome may be and having to dread the worst. In addition, I am concerned about breast cancer because it is proven that it can now occur at any age. I recently had a scare that involved me having several breast lumps. Fortunately, the lumps were examined with a biopsy and they were identified as benign. Now I have mammograms every few months just for my self assurance. This experience helped me realize the importance of health and how women need to pay attention to their health and their bodies. You only have one life to live and one body to live it in so why not do it the right way.
I interviewed an individual of Ethiopian descent who expressed that her main health concern was diabetes. Diabetes runs through her family to the point where everyone in the family who are past the age of forty are diabetics. She verbalized that her main concern was the fact that diabetes comes with risk of blindness and amputation of ligaments. She also is worried about high blood pressure and high cholesterol since she lost her father to a massive heart attack that could have been caused by years of poor eating habits.
In addition, I discussed health concerns with an individual of the Cameroonian culture who voiced her main health concern as cancer. Cancer runs in her family (uterine, ovarian) and was the cause of death of her mother. In comparison, the concerns were usually sparked from first-hand experiences like the deaths of several family members which are reason enough to be concerned. Genetic diseases are very common and sometimes hard to control which is a scary thought because you never know what disease you might end up with at an old or young age.