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Some women may also decide to delay cancer screening and check-ups even if they experience symptoms due to their duties as mothers , housekeepers , and caregivers .
“‘ Why are you trying to look for problems ?’ is a common question in a lot of patriarchal societies ,” said Dr Nirmala .
Some women may also decide to delay cancer screening and check-ups even if they experience symptoms due to their duties as mothers , housekeepers , and caregivers . In many societies , women do most of the housekeeping , cooking , and childcare as well as caregiving for family members . This also means that relatives and the society as a whole often expect women to perform those chores because they ’ re considered their responsibilities , putting pressure on women to fall into line .
“ A woman tends to put herself behind others ” and even if she has cancer symptoms , especially if they are painless , she is going to postpone seeing a doctor until she gets worse because she wants to take care of her kids or other family duties , explained �r Nirmala .
Similarly , these concerns and duties may also push women to go for more invasive cancer surgery even if alternatives involving the removal of less tissue are available . One example is breast cancer treatment where women may have to choose between removing a lump or the entire breast . Though less invasive , the surgery to take out lumps is usually followed by several courses of radiotherapy to reduce the risk of relapse .
“ Many women , especially in Asia , tend to pick removing the entire breast because it entails that they don ’ t have to go to the hospital many times for radiotherapy ,” she said , adding that this was a prospect that made them uncomfortable because they didn ’ t want to trouble their families . Though such concerns can also in�uence men ’ s cancer treatment decisions , they are more common in women .
Family and household obligations also result in women being less likely to keep their jobs while they have cancer or get back to work after treatment .
“ A mother is always a mother , and always has to take care of their family and there are lots of household chores that , because of being ill , mothers are unable to do as usual , and therefore they are unable to return to work ,” Dr Nirmala said .
Another disparity between men and women with cancer is driven by the non-medical costs of treating the disease , such as the financial resources needed for transportation to the hospital , accommodation in case people live far away , and hiring someone to do housekeeping and organise childcare . Women are also more likely than men to lack means for transportation and to pay for housekeeping and childcare services while being away from home , meaning that their nonmedical costs are higher than men ’ s .
“ The non-medical cost of cancer is equally important and often not measured ,” said Dr Nirmala , who led the ACTION study from 2011 to 2015 to look at the economic outcomes of people with cancer in Southeast Asia . “ We managed to measure nonmedical cost and show that it ’ s an important driver of families making catastrophic expenditures , and in women this is more likely .”
Women are also more likely to work in informal sectors where there are no employment protection policies or health insurance programmes , resulting in loss of income when they ’ re diagnosed with cancer while also incurring exorbitant medical expenses .
All these socio-economic factors expose women with cancer to greater financial risk and catastrophe than men with the disease , often rendering the costs of treatment and maintaining overall health unaffordable .
The lack of a female perspective in cancer research The difficulties women with cancer face are rarely captured by research , which mostly looks at the medical side of the disease , and to some extent this is due to the fact that few women are in oncology leadership positions . According to the commission , women make up less than 30 percent of the “ senior authorship positions ” in the top oncology journals .
“ A lot of research funding is targeted towards biomedical research or new diagnostic and therapeutical areas , but there ’ s very little money
Family and household obligations also result in women being less likely to keep their jobs while they have cancer or get back to work after treatment .
40 ISSUE 2 | 2024 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com