Women Take Interest In Autoimmune Diseases

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 490
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Doctors typically view medical issues, such as the autoimmune disorders Asthma, Crohn's Disease, Lupus, and allergies, as medical-only problems - something they can treat in a hospital and put an end to it. In reality, the system is extremely complex. If you want to stop these debilitating conditions in their tracks and even prevent them for your children and future children, you have to go out into the environment and look at the social implications of the diseases.

Philosopher Sharyn Clough and several feminists and medical professionals have taken up the call to examine autoimmune diseases as social problem. Particularly, they want to see why women suffer from these conditions in such higher numbers than men.

Women Hit Harder by Autoimmune Diseases than Men

Asthma is infamously on the rise in the United States, but it is rarely noted that millions more girls have asthma than boys. In fact, 8.9 percent of females suffer from asthma, whereas 6.5 percent of boys do, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With Lupus, women experience it nine times more than men.

Even environmental ...
... allergies and food allergies are more common and severe in women.
Altogether, 75 percent of patients with autoimmunity complications are female.

Hygiene May Hold the Answer

Medicine has proposed a possible explanation for the unusually high, ever-increasing rates in which women, and humans in general, suffer from autoimmune diseases.

It's called the Hygiene Hypothesis. Supposedly, a lack of exposure to pathogens, disease-causing agents, and non-infectious environmental factors during youth leaves the immune system underdeveloped. In a way, germs and allergens are food for the immune system, and starving it leaves the immune system stunted. This not only means that you cannot fight off infections as well, it also means your immune system cannot recognize what is and isn't an infection. Instead, it becomes confused and overreacts, which is what we call an allergic reaction.

The idea was significantly older, but science did not begin to take it seriously until the 1990s. Not until the 2000s, however, have medical studies turned up evidence.

A Woman's Superior Hygiene Leaves Her Vulnerable

If the Hygiene Hypothesis is correct, as Sharyn Clough believes, women's behavior may explain why they get autoimmune problems more than men. She suggests that women are socialized to be exposed to fewer germs and pathogens.

The evidence exists that young girls tend to spend more time indoors than boys, who get dirty outside. Even the way girls are dressed, in clothes that they are not allowed to get dirty, prevent them from exposure to a less hygienic environment.
This means that girls are more likely to have an underdeveloped immune system, since they just do not get as much practice.

Possible Solutions

Feminist thinkers suggest that combating the gender roles American patriarchal culture forces on girls is needed for a solution. Others suggest we just encourage our girls to spend more time outside. Clough shies away from these arguments, however, suggesting that we should not jump to conclusions. Rather, we should trust medicine to provide more information, as researchers begin to look through studies from a gender-sensitive lens.

As things stand, Prednisone is the best answer to autoimmune problems. Allergic reactions, Lupus, Asthma, and Crohn's Disease are all treatable with prednisone.