Factsheets
Health Canada pays specific attention to women's health issues
in response to a consensus among service providers, consumers and
policy-makers that gender is a critical variable which in the past
has not been adequately taken into account. For example, women have
often been excluded from investigative clinical trials for new drugs.
These drugs were then approved for use by both women and men even
though women's relative smaller size and different hormonal activity
might provoke negative reactions. For this reason, Health Canada
issued a policy statement requiring that manufacturers include women
as well as men in clinical trials for drugs. This is just one illustration
of Health Canada's belief that our health system must address the
needs of women and men differently, and correct past imbalances.
Attention to specific health issues for women assists policy makers,
health care providers, and women themselves to appropriately address
the health needs of women as they differ between women and men,
and among women themselves. No two women are alike, and differences
of socio-economic status, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation,
geography etc., affect their health in different ways. It is for
this reason that it is important to raise awareness of the specific
issues which affect their lives.
Fact sheets on women's health
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Women's health
involves their emotional, social and physical well-being and is
determined by the social, political and economic context of their
lives, as well as by biology (para.89)."
- U.N. Platform for Action, Beijing, 1995
For more information, contact the Bureau of Women's Health and Gender Analysis.
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