Women Aware’s first keynote speaker, Kanwal Haq, MS, is passionate about making health care equitable for all. A health care guide by women, for women and their families, could play a major role in this goal.
“I hope this book will help start these conversations within our families, start these conversations with our friends,” Haq said, to ensure better, more specialized care.
Haq is a Poplar Bluff native and co-author of “Taking Care of You: The Empowered Woman’s Guide to Better Health.” She and orthopedic surgeon Mary O’Connor, MD, assembled over 100 female medical experts to share their knowledge.
“Taking Care of You” has chapters on everything from torn rotator cuffs to endometriosis, what treatment looks like for women, wisdom from personal experience and questions to ask doctors. Asking the right questions helps doctors and patients get to the bottom of an issue more quickly and efficiently, puts patients in touch with specialists faster and ultimately ensures better care.
“Whether it’s the arthritis chapter, the depression chapter… You’ll find some information that’s been verified by the medical team,” Haq said.
The journey to “Taking Care of You” began with Haq’s own health issues during her time at Yale. She had been passionate about fixing bias within the health care system for years, and pursued medical anthropology for precisely that reason, but now she was personally frustrated by the difficulty of getting the care she needed.
It was during this time she met O’Connor, who shared her view.
“There was just a lot that we saw that was wrong with the system, especially for women,” Haq explained.
The medical field tends to assume men are the baseline when studying illness, injuries and other conditions, even though men’s and women’s bodies react very differently to treatment. Haq presented three statistics underlining this point:
Non-smoking women are three times more likely to contract lung cancer than non-smoking men, yet lung cancer awareness is focused on male smokers. Lung cancer kills more women than breast, uterine and ovarian cancers combined.
Most recalled medications are retracted due to adverse side effects in women because they were predominantly tested on men or male cells.
And while 80% of health care decisions are made by women, only 10% of the nation’s $42 billion health care budget is invested in women’s health.
Ultimately, Haq and O’Connor’s book was about giving women a resource to put their health and the health of their families back in their hands.
“Everyone can play a role in better health care but a lot of us tend not to know how much the system is not designed for us… Things change when women know about it,” she said.
Of the book’s proceeds, 99% will go to the Mayo Clinic’s women’s health services.
“Taking Care of You” publishes Oct. 4 and is available for pre-order on most online booksellers. More information is available at takingcareofyoubook.com and on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn under the handle @womenshealthbook.
Attendees enjoyed Haq’s presentation with a lunch catered by Tasteful Creations before moving on to the afternoon’s breakout sessions.
Mary Lovette’s favorite breakout session of the morning was a self-defense class taught by instructor Judy Jackson.
“It was funny but it was also very encouraging. I think if you did the things she said and practiced, you could really protect yourself,” Lovette said.
Kathy Sneed, a host on Life Radio, attended Tabatha Thomas’ social media class and learned how to jump-start Grace Out Loud ministries, which she is founding with a friend.
“We’re starting out from Facebook, so the more information we can get, the more we can help each other,” she noted.
Retired MU Extension specialist Phyllis Flanigan manned the Missouri’s Extension Family and Consumer Science (MEFCS) booth and could not attend the classes, which covered everything from side hustles to gardening. Nevertheless, she loved the energy at Women Aware 2022.
“I thought it was great. I always enjoy going to Women Aware, and this is the 35th anniversary,” she said.
Flanigan has an almost perfect attendance streak — 34 out of 35 conferences.
“It doesn’t matter what comes your way, you can respond any way you want to,” said final Women Aware keynote speaker and motivational author Christine Cashen.
During her speech, Cashen took the opportunity to motivate women to rest, encourage one another and practice positive thinking.
“You gotta give yourself a little bit of a break,” said Cashen. “You want to protect your energy, put a little bubble around it.”
During her upbeat presentation, she discussed the downfalls of social media, negative thinking and the tendency for people in current times to forget to disconnect.
“When you go to bed, go to sleep,” said Cashen, as she handed out “sleeping bags” for cell phones to eager audience members.
“Bring it on” is Cashen’s catch phrase, which kept the audience enthralled, “Here’s a tip — bring it on — are you the fountain or the drain,” said Cashen. It is her belief that “What you say comes your way,” or in other words, people manifest their reality with their attitude. She went on to encourage those in attendance to make a commitment to be in a good mood and have a good attitude.
“The two hour good mood commitment, you don’t have to feel it, you just have to say it,” said Cashen.
You have the power to change the direction of your day by thinking positive and helping to lift others up, which will in turn lift you up as well, she said.
“There is a gift in the lift,” said Cashen.
After Cashen ended her speech she was met with a standing ovation from the crowd.