An Uphill Climb

Two medical professionals weigh in on what gender bias looks like in the context of Malaysian women’s healthcare and how the issue is far more complex upon closer inspection

- Koyyi Chin 

In August the Health White Paper was announced to be in the works during the Health Policy Summit 2022. According to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s statement, published by CodeBlue, the white paper aimed “to strengthen the national healthcare system as a whole and to provide equitable, high-quality, sustainable and easily accessible health services at an affordable cost”.

For women’s health, Malaysia recently launched the Clinical Practice Guidelines of Management of Menopause in July 2022. It was a landmark achievement of healthcare systems in Southeast Asia, which served to aid health providers in the better management of menopausal health clinically. Since 2010, Malaysia has conducted an ongoing national HPV (human papillomavirus) immunisation programme for female students over 13 years old, eliminating the risk of cervical cancer.

Despite the positive initiatives that have taken place in the nation’s healthcare system, for president and medical director of the National Cancer Society of Malaysia, Dato’ Dr Saunthari Somasundaram, and the professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at International Medical University Malaysia, Dr Nazimah Idris, the issues that lay within women’s healthcare didn’t just involve a lack of resources and insufficient health literacy, but are interwtined with a sociocultural factor that, inadvertently or otherwise, impacted a woman’s autonomy and the medical treatment she receives.

NOT JUST A PATIENT