Reproductive health is a specific lifelong concern and a lived reality for more than half of the population. Women and people with female reproductive organs have involved and often complex healthcare needs, which track into the every day and which come with an associated cost.
This cost is often tied into the ‘pink tax’, a tally of gender-based costs that illustrates the pervasive nature of gender-based discrimination in modern society. But just how much is the reproductive health ‘pink tax,’ and what are the challenges women face today regarding healthcare and their bodies?
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The Gender Pay Gap and Reproductive Health
In invoking the ‘pink tax,’ we invoke an essential point that bears making about reproductive health and the existence of gender-based costs altogether. The gender pay gap is a major indictment of modern society’s inadequate movements towards gender parity, with women earning 7.7% less than men on average.
This relative gender-based pay cut, coupled with gender-specific cost hikes associated with everything from feminine-coded consumer items to the female anatomy itself, paints a damning picture of the costs associated with being a woman in society. But how much are women spending on their anatomy in particular?
How Much Are Women Spending?
According to the results of a recent survey by legal firm Bolt Burdon Kemp, women spend an average of £372.36 per year on items relating to their reproductive health. The list of items purchased ranges from birth control and personal hygiene products to menopause products and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. Between a lower average annual salary and this higher annual cost burden, women are being financially squeezed.
The Importance of Going to the GP
The survey also touched on GP visits overall, finding a concerning statistic relating to regular visits. Three in five women had not visited their doctor with respect to reproductive health in five years, despite routine cervical screening programs still being underway. Worse still, though, are the outcomes for those who went for their screening and whose cervical cancer was not caught.
These situations are somewhat rare but growing less so in an ailing NHS. Cancer misdiagnosis claims are a primary route for securing both financial settlement and civil justice. This is also where self-advocacy becomes a powerful tool, as women’s health issues continue to suffer from institutional biases even in healthcare environments.
Health and the Younger Generation
A positive outlook for reproductive health is possible, though, as modern society continues to catch up with its dated precedents. For instance, younger women are more empowered to seek and advocate for their own reproductive health, armed with more knowledge and independence with which to do so.
The same survey as above revealed that younger demographics were more likely to spend more on their reproductive health than older demographics. This attunement with body and self is a positive impact which will work to reduce negative health outcomes in the future.
