Women spend more money on health care than men. And no, it’s not just about “women’s issues”

Medicare, Australia universal health insurance systemguarantees all Australians have access to a wide range of health and hospital services at low or no cost.

While access to the program is universal across Australia (regardless of geographic location or socioeconomic status), one analysis suggests women often spend more less money for health care than men.

Other studies have found that men and women spend generally similar amounts on health care, or even the same amounts as men a little more. However, it is clear that women spend approx most of their overall expenses for health care than men. This is also more likely skip or delay medical care due to cost.

So why do women often spend more money on health care, and how can we address this gap?

Women suffer from more chronic diseases and have access to more services

There are women more likely suffer from a chronic disease compared to men. They are also more likely to report the occurrence of many chronic diseases.

Although men generally die earlier, women are more likely to spend most of their lives live with the disease. There are also certain conditions that affect women more often than men, such as autoimmune diseases (for example, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis).

In addition, sometimes treatment may be used less effective for women due to the focus on men in medical research.

These discrepancies are likely essential in understanding why women access to health services more than men.

For example, 88% women saw GP in 2021-2022 compared to 79% men.

As is the number of primary care physicians offering collective settlements continues to decline, women will likely have to pay more out of pocket because it is visit your family doctor more often.

In 2020–21 4.3% women stated that they had delayed visiting their GP at least once in the last 12 months due to costs, compared to 2.7% men.

Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics also found that women are more likely to delay or avoid seeing a mental health professional due to cost.

Women are more likely to need prescription drugs, at least in part due to the increased incidence of chronic diseases. This adds additional running costs. In 2020–21 62% women received a prescription compared with 37% of men.

In the same period 6.1% women Delayed in receiving or not receiving prescribed medications due to cost vs 4.9% men.

Reproductive health conditions

Although women are disproportionately affected by chronic disease throughout their lives, much of the difference in health care needs is concentrated between menopause and menopause.

Almost half of women over the age of 18 reported having had chronic pelvic pain in the last five years. This may be caused by conditions such as endometriosis, dysmenorrhea (period pain), vulvodynia (vulvar pain) and bladder pain.

One in seven women A 49-year-old woman will be diagnosed with endometriosis.

Meanwhile, one quarter of all women aged 45–64 report symptoms related to menopause that are so significant that they interfere with their daily lives.

All of these conditions can significantly reduce quality of life and escalate the need for health care, sometimes including surgical treatment.

Of course, diseases such as endometriosis do not only affect women. They influence too transgender menintersex and gender diverse people.

Diagnosis can be steep

Women often have to wait longer for diagnosis for chronic diseases. One preprint examination found that women wait on average 134 days (about 4.5 months) longer than men to be diagnosed with a long-term chronic disease.

They often cause delays in diagnosis need to see more doctorsincreasing costs again.

Although it affects about the same number of people as diabetes, it takes an average of between six and a half Down eight years for diagnosing endometriosis in Australia. This can be attributed to, among others: number of factors including society’s normalization of women’s pain, impoverished knowledge of endometriosis among some healthcare professionals, and the lack of affordable, non-invasive methods to accurately diagnose the disease.

Recently, improvements have been made with the introduction Medicare discounts for longer consultations with your family doctor up to 60 minutes. While this is not unique to women, this extra time will be valuable in diagnosing and treating elaborate conditions.

However, gender inequality issues persist in the Medicare benefit schedule. For example, there are discounts on pelvic and breast ultrasounds less than a scrotal scanAND he doesn’t deny it exists for MRI examination of pelvic pain in women.

Management can also be steep

Many chronic diseases such as endometriosiswhich has a wide range of symptoms but no cure, can be very hard to manage. People suffering from endometriosis often exploit related and health-related measures complementary medicine aid with symptoms.

On average, women exploit both solutions more often than men complementary therapies AND allied health.

Although women suffering from chronic diseases can access chronic disease treatment planthat provides Medicare-subsidized visits to a range of allied health services (e.g., physical therapist, psychologist, dietitian), this plan subsidizes only five sessions per calendar year. And there is a return usually around 50% or lesstherefore, there are still significant ongoing costs.

Chronic pelvic pain has been found to have an average cost of access to allied or complementary health services AUD 480.32 over a two-month period (both among those who have a chronic disease management plan and those who do not).

More spending, less saving

Women’s health care needs can also perpetuate financial strains beyond direct health care costs. For example, women suffering from endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain are often associated with the need to take time off work to attend medical appointments.

Our preliminary research found that these repeated requests, combined with widespread disregard for the symptoms associated with pelvic pain, mean that women sometimes face discrimination at work. This can lead to lack of career opportunities, underemployment and premature retirement.

Similarly with 160,000 women in Australia entering menopause every year (and this number is expected to escalate as the population grows), financial consequences are significant.

As much as one in four women they can either switch to part-time work, take a break from work, or take early retirement due to menopause, earning less and paying less into their super.

How can we close this gap?

Although women are more susceptible to chronic diseases, until recently much medical research has focused on this issue done on men. We are only now beginning to realize there are significant differences in the way men and women experience certain conditions (such as chronic pain).

Investing in women’s health research will be essential to improve treatments so that women have less burden of chronic disease.

In the 2024–25 federal budget, the government allocated $160 million for this purpose women’s health package eliminating gender bias in the health care system (including cost disparities), improving the qualifications of medical staff and improving sexual and reproductive care.

While this reform is welcome, long-term investment in women’s health is crucial.