by Shima Tabatabai, ; Nasser Simforoosh, Arch Iran Med. July 2020;23(7):469-479
Identifies important trends and challenges. Since 1979, life expectancy has increased by 29% in Iranian women, while female adult mortality rate has decreased by 78%, and maternal mortality rate has decreased by 80%. The number of female medical specialists has increased by 933% , while the number of female subspecialists has increased by 1700%. Ten major challenges regarding women’s health were identified: 1) Increase in chronic disease; 2) Increase in cancer cases; 3) Preference for same-gender physicians in sensitive procedures; 4) Delayed care-seeking due to lack of female surgeons; 5) Lack of gender-concordance in clinical settings; 6) Underestimating female surgeons’ capabilities; 7) Female physicians’ work-family conflicts; 8) Male-dominancy in surgical departments; 9) Women’s under-representation in higher rank positions; and 10) Lack of women in academic leadership.
Conclusion: We identified different solutions to bridge these gaps.
