Cystic Fibrosis

1. How important are sex and gender in the experience of cystic fibrosis?  Do you see this in the movie 65 Red Roses?

As with any disease or disorder gender and sex affects it greatly. Particularly with cystic fibrosis it has been shown that females often have worse prognosis’s that what males would have, although it has been shown that the occurrence of this equal among men and women. To be more specific how the prognosis is a lot worse in females than in males, females tend to have more difficulty with meeting grown milestones than males and often experience more lung related issues. Because of this it’s often that females do have more severe symptoms and unfortunately have shorter life expectancies. It’s also shown that females develop symptoms of this disease earlier in their life than that of a male, which could lead into problems such as maintaining a healthy body weight after puberty. As for gender related experiences this too is also very difference from male to female, we see that the gender differences reflect the way males and females respond and perceive their health status, we have to take into account the emotional functioning of males and females, body image, concerns for the future, relationships and career. I think by picking out key aspects of this such as “body image” one would generally say yes this may be a problem for females more than males in dealing with a  situation like this or even emotional functioning for both genders.  I believe in the movie its somewhat hard to see the difference experiences from a male and female point of view considering the movie is about 1 female with 2 other female friends dealing with the same issue although you could get some great insight about the emotional aspects females in particular may go though as opposed to a male point of view

1. Using the stories of women discussed in DES Daughters, explain what DES is and how people’s lives were affected by this medication.

Des or Diethylstilbestrol is a synthetic form of a female hormone estrogen that was prescribed to women between 1940 and 1971 to prevent miscarriages and premature labor among other related complications with pregnancy. Soon after research linked this exposure to this hormone to what we know as a type of cancer found in the cervix and vagina called adenocarcinoma. After this find the FDA made it clear that this drug should be prescribed to pregnant woman but throughout Europe it was still being prescribed until 1978. By 2007 there has been approx... 760 cases of clear cell adenocarcinoma in which 2/3 of them have been due to parental exposure to DES. People’s lives have been greatly affect from this; many females have had multiple miscarriages, their children being born premature ( this could lead to problems in itself for both the parent and the child). Children being born with abnormalities. The treatment for this is not only mentally but physical challenging for a female I would imagine; the current treatments include complete surgical removal of the female vagina, radical hysterectomy and radiation. There is also the option of surgical reconstruction of the vagina that is recommended.  It’s also important to note that men can also suffer the effects of DES and are referred to as “DES sons”, the male complications include the likelihood of noncancerous cyst in the male reproductive system

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