Does inequality prevail in treatment of fairer sex in orthopaedics?
Authors:   Department of Orthopaedics, Holy Spirit Hospital, Mumbai, India., Antao Nicholas A 
Published: January 2024

From times immemorial, women has had the difficult road to travel, may be their values in societal position, their active participation and understanding and realisation of their voice in matters of legislation, not to say the least in day to day contribution still needs to be appreciated despite working full time24/7. When I was a resident in the seventies, I often used to wonder, why the Opd’s were full of womenfolk as compared to men in chronic ailments of musculoskeletal pains carrying a with them , a thick pad of opd papers with only written legible prescription was ctall (continue all). On the other hand, the numbers were higher for male gender in trauma and sports injuries. To attend the OPDs, probably was an outing for them, getting away from daily chores of unrecognised and unappreciated, housebound work of 24/7. The most research subjects were males than females and the surprising feature was absent of consent when it came to consent for surgery, as if their presence does not matter and their place needs to be at home alone. It was accepted that they are not the bread winners but only the homemakers and medical expenditure on them was not very fruitful. It was after the 1993 the National Institute of Health made a declaration to deliver equal high quality of care and effective management to all and not to make gender biased discrimination. As we crossed the twentieth century and went into the 21st century, a forward progressive thinking brought about sea of change, when women started working in offices, took up to education, excelled more than men in education and in financial matters , thereby becoming independent and therefore demanded equality of status. There are now ever increasing number of women not only doing Orthopaedics but also superspecialising in sub specialist and attracting female patients and thus competing with their male counterparts. So you no longer see the world” destined for men only “ operating today, because of the need felt to give equal opportunity to all without any bias and discrimination of social status and circumstances to attain their full potential. Nowadays you see more women readily agree to consent for surgery, since more and more educated young men and women tend to accompany their mother for being operated because they insure their parents for medical treatment and feel satisfied emotionally and morally as they are giving back to them to reciprocate their loved and care. But still in some developing and underdeveloped countries for want of insurance agencies and abilities, there opportunities of facilities of care are lacking and therefore the male counterpart still is preferred for surgery over female patient. The female patient has more ailments of osteoporosis, osteoarthrosis and musculoskeletal problems than the male counterparts and the need to be promptly treated, to keep the pillar and backbone of the family healthy and not disabled. In developed countries, many joint replacement registries show, increasing number of female patients getting operated for joint replacement surgery and even for sports related injuries, implying that the ratio is changing to the prevailing order earlier. This reversing trend is better for society as the female patient becomes multitasked and well respected needs to be equally cared for and given the importance.