19 October 2011

BEIRUT: Women’s health care in Lebanon has been only concerned with maternal health services and care during pregnancy and birth, Information Minister Walid Daouk said at a conference Monday, adding that while these services are important, they only address the needs of mothers and not women across ages.

Daouk called for more coordination between organizations that care for women’s issues, urging them to develop better media strategies and mobilization programs.

“We call on all women in Lebanon to approach the media in order to present their health issues in a scientific manner,” Daouk said.

The conference, organized by the Lebanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology in collaboration with the health and information ministries and the United Nations Population Fund, aimed at addressing and improving the Lebanese media’s coverage of women’s health issues.

According to Daouk, the media nowadays only addresses the various health issues of women for commercial purposes, focusing mainly on the sensational aspects of women’s sexual and reproductive health in order to increase viewer rates rather than provide guidance.

“There is an absence of specialized and scientific television programs [on women’s health] as these programs do not attract viewers,” Daouk said adding “television and radio stations avoid addressing these issues that are not considered profitable in the commercial sense.”

During the conference, the head of LSOG, Dr. Faysal al-Kak, gave a presentation during which he demonstrated Lebanese women’s lack of awareness of their various health issues and rights.

“We want to see more comprehensive and better coverage of women’s health issues in the media especially concerning means of protection.”

According to Kak, studies show that 50 percent of women in Lebanon who give birth do not return for a follow-up visit with their gynecologist, and 90 percent of women do not perform pap smears regularly.

In 2002, 30 to 40 percent of women performed mammograms to detect symptoms of breast cancer, while in 2007 this percentage dropped significantly to 17 percent despite the low costs of mammography, Kak said.

Kak attributed this lack of awareness to several factors including the lack of services that are friendly to women who most of the time do not enjoy their rights to dignity and confidentiality while performing health examinations.

Another factor is insufficient or inaccurate media coverage, Kak said, adding that it is important for the media to address all women’s health issues, including sexual and psychological health, in a comprehensive manner and provide better analyses of the factors that positively or negatively affect the health of women.

Kak criticized certain media outlets that air programs which promote surgeries, mainly reconstructive surgeries for female reproductive parts, which do not have any medical benefits and are not based on scientific evidence, and called on the media to rely on trustworthy sources.

Following the presentation, reporters listed difficulties they face while reporting on women’s health issues including the difficulty to access health studies carried out in Lebanon.

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.