This week’s theme is Women’s Health Awareness. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, and it’s probably one of the millions of different topics that this overarching theme encompasses. It’s probably one of the millions of issues that need to be addressed regarding women’s health or one of the millions of different health issues that everyone needs to be made aware of.
However, for any of those health topics to be addressed and given the proper attention that they deserve, we need to actually be able to talk about them. It sounds simple, right? Of course, it sounds easy enough, but I’ve found that women’s health is often sort of stigmatized.
For me, at least, women’s health isn’t something I’ve ever really talked about, and so when I found out that it was this week’s topic, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intimidated to talk about the subject. Even though I’ve had personal experience with it, I’ve never really talked to anyone about it before — and not in the general sense. I’ve definitely talked with my mom or my friends, but I’m talking about a real, genuine conversation on issues surrounding health issues or topics that women encounter on a yearly, monthly, weekly or even daily basis. I’ve never talked about why different health issues and topics need attention, and I’ve definitely never given these topics the attention that they desperately deserve.
Thinking about that, though, made me realize how much awareness needs to be raised. I’ve often heard the saying that, “if you have a question, chances are other people do too,” or at least, some variation of that phrase, and I think that, in this case, that saying rings true. This is a topic, this is a conversation, this is something that needs to not be stigmatized. This is something that needs to be changed, and I hope that we can do that.
Women’s health is important, and all of the many topics that it encompasses are important. These are things to which awareness needs to be raised. That’s what this week is all about. It’s time to change an often stigmatized conversation, and it’s time to bring awareness to an increasingly important topic.