From: hillyard@msc.cornell.edu
Subject: Re: Mysogynist Bullshit
Originator: hillyard@tiger.msc.cornell.edu
Reply-To: hillyard@msc.cornell.edu
Organization: Cornell-Materials-Science-Center
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 01:48:50 GMT

> In article <C0GHwp.48w@panix.com> pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich) writes:
[...]
>>
>>The point is that because of lousy diagnosis and lack of studies
>>it is not clear whether the belief that women were at one time at
>>very low risk for heart disease had a basis in fact or not. Current
>>studies indicate that doctors are not diagnosing (or at least not
>>treating) heart ailments as agressively in women as in men. If
>>we extrapolate that information to the past, it means that historical
>>figures for the incidence of heart disease in women are questionable.

Here's what my Almanac lists for the death rates (Noting that these are
death rates and not rates of heart disease, which, I suppose, could be
much differnt.)

Death Rates From Heart Disease (per 100,000 population)
            Male
age      1960(1)      1970      1980      1986
total(2)  439.5       422.5     368.6     333.1
25-34      20.1        15.2      11.4      11.8
35-44     112.7       103.2      68.7      58.0
45-54     420.4       376.4     282.6     221.4
55-64    1066.9       987.2     746.8     627.1
65-74    2291.3      2170.3    1728.0    1446.7
75-84    4742.4      4534.8    3834.3    3375.8
85+      9788.9      8426.2    8752.7    7911.5

            Female
age      1960(1)      1970      1980      1986
total(2)  300.6       304.5     305.1     302.7
25-34      11.3         7.7       5.3       5.5
35-44      38.2        32.2      21.4      17.7
45-54     127.5       109.9      84.5      72.1
55-64     429.4       351.6     272.1     244.1
65-74    1261.3      1082.7     828.6     724.2
75-84    3582.7      3120.8    2497.0    2196.9
85+      9016.8      7591.8    7350.5    6889.3

(1) includes deaths of non-residents of the US.
(2) includes persons under age 25.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics.

From looking at these I have to think that the belief that women were
at low risk for heart disease doesn't have a basis in fact.  The death rates
are lower for women (they are ~77% higher in men), but not that much lower--
I can't imagine how a practicing doctor wouldn't know this.  Secondly, the 
death rates seem to be coming down at similar rates for both sexes--implying 
to me (obviously, this is extremely superficial) that any advances in 
treatment are being used with similar effectiveness on both sexes.  Are these
studies saying that unequal treatment is a big problem, or is it rather 
something that is statistically significant, but in the big picture isn't 
making that much difference?

On a different, but somewhat related, note.  Cancer rates are listed on the 
same page.  Somewhat surprising to me is this.

Estimated Cancer Deaths by Site and Sex, 1990
                 New Cases               Deaths   
           total     Male     Female    total   Male   Female
breast    150,900      900   150,000    44,300    300   44,000 
prostate  106,000  106,000     -        30,000 30,000     -

Source: American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures--1990.

With this comment.
Among women, breast cancer is the second most common, though if detected
early and treated properly, it has a very high cure rate.  Among men, prostate
cancer cause the second greatest number of deaths.  It too has a high
survival rate if discovered while still localized within the general region
of the prostate.


The figures seem reasonably comparable.  Any particular reason we (or at
least I) hear so much more about breast cancer.  For example, is early 
detection (meaning in time to make a real difference) more diffacult for 
prostate cancer.  Or is this a case of who screams loudest gets the attention. 

SEH
Xref: sparky soc.men:22265 alt.feminism:6872