Women’s health ‘discriminated against,’ says report.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHPregnant woman (illustrative) (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
The childbirth rate of Israeli women is the highest among the 34 OECD countries, while its rate of cesarean sections is the lowest, according to a report discussed by the Knesset Labor, Social Welfare the Health Committee on Tuesday.Initiated by MK Ahmed Tibi (an obstetrician/gynecologist by training) and MK Revital Swid, the session also included other statistics on women’s health. The average Israeli woman has a life expectancy of 83.9, among the highest in the OECD. The highest figure is 86.6 years in Japan, while the lowest is in Mexico, with 77.4.The average Israeli woman has three children, the highest in the OECD, while the OECD average is 1.7 and the lowest figure is South Korea at 1.2.The average rate of cesareans here is 154.3 per 1,000 births. The average OECD figure is 258.7 and in Turkey the highest – 503.6.Mammography rates in Israel are not so high here – only 70.5% among women aged 50 to 69, compared to 83% in Finland and Slovenia, but the OECD average is only 58.9%.Israel is in fifth place among OECD countries in mortality rates due to breast cancer – 30.5 per 100,000 women, compared to the OECD average of 24.4 and the lowest rate of 7.6 in South Korea.As for updating the basket of health services for 2016, MK Osama Sa’adi objected to the fact that only six of the members of the public basket committee are women.And Dr. Rakefet Bachrach of the National Council for Women’s Health complained that the committee tends to “reject” the council’s recommendations for including medical technologies for female diseases in the basket.Lika Cohen, a patient suffering from the rarely diagnosed but common skin disease called hidradenitis suppurativa, complained that victims – most of them women – suffer from much difficulty and they can’t even take a shower or get dressed. The chronic skin condition features peasized to marble-sized lumps under the skin that break open and drain foul-smelling pus. But, she said, many doctors are completely unaware of it, and it takes an average of seven years to get a diagnosis.