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Listen to Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett: Women are not “niche.” Neither is their healthcare

Cate Blanchett – Acceptance Speech – Oscars 2014 by IdolxMuzic As Cate Blanchett so aptly […]


Cate Blanchett – Acceptance Speech – Oscars 2014 by IdolxMuzic
As Cate Blanchett so aptly explained in her stunning Oscar acceptance speech: Woman-centered does not equal “niche experience.” Dr. Anula Jayasuriya pointed out how Blanchett’s speech rings true to much of healthcare.

“People call women’s health a niche, and it’s hard for me to parse that–because how can 51 percent of the population be a niche?” Jayasuriya said. Jayasuriya has co-founded a fund, eXXclaim Capital, which focuses on women’s health solutions, as well as serving on the board of Astia, a nonprofit focused on helping women’s startups, and as managing director at Evolence India Life Science Fund.

She said the time is now (finally!) “optimum” for women’s health innovation and investment.

“There are many trends that have converged to make the time now more than ever before.”

Watch Blanchett’s acceptance speech above, blast Beyonce’s “Who Run the World” on high and check out these trends Jayasuriya said contribute to meeting women’s healthcare needs now:

1. Our numbers are growing. Fact: There are more women than men.

2. The “leaky, creaky, saggy cohort” is also growing, especially in advanced economies. This demographic–who Jayasuriya, a self-proclaimed member of this tribe, has deemed the aging women who want to stay active well beyond retirement–is demanding products that up quality of life, not just life-saving.

3. An increased “willingness to talk” about women’s health issues. Jayasuriya said data shows women 30 years ago were less likely to talk about sexual enjoyment, prolapse, fecal incontinence, urinary incontinence–often chalked up to the inevitable costs of pregnancy. But now (perhaps in part because, Jayasuriya said, more OBGyns are women), patients report these problems.

“These issues were a source of great embarrassment in previous decades, and [patients] barely talked to their physicians about it, didn’t think there was any way to address them and basically took them as part of their lot, as aging,” she said. “What’s changed is women say, “‘I want this fixed. I’m willing to pay money to have something done here.'”

4.  Personalized medicine 101: Medical realization that women and men are physiologically different. For years, Jayasuriya said, medical research was done on white men, thinking of women as smaller men “except when it comes to the plumbing.”

According to an episode of Science Friday featuring Virginia Miller, a professor at Mayo Clinic, in medical preclinical studies, even female mice were under-represented. But, Jayasuriya said, medicine is beginning to realize the differences between men and women when it comes to healthcare, from metabolism to hormones.

“If you consider metabolism is not the same between men and women, distribution of fat is not the same between men and women, kidney function is not the same between men and women, it just makes sense that we should look at some of these other parameters based on sex,” Miller told NPR.

These unrealized differences led to the FDA announcement that women should be prescribed lower dosages of Ambien than men. (“Women appear to be more susceptible to this risk [next-morning impairment] because they eliminate zolpidem from their bodies more slowly than men,” the safety announcement reads.)

“Women are not just small men,” Jayasuriya said.

Or, as Blanchett put it, “The world is round, people.”

“My thesis here is not that men actively had mal-intent and have suppressed women. . . . There have been a lot of reasons that have seemed rational at the time that are turning out to not have been the best,” Jayasuriya said.

Plus, there’s a convincing bottom line to contend with. As Blanchett said of women-centered films, “In fact, they earn money.” So, too, will women’s health solutions.

“The woman is the chief medical officer of her family’s health decisions,” Jayasuriya said. As retail has long known and medicine is slowly finding out, women have buying power.

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