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What mistakes do women make in caring for their health?

Marianne Legato, MD:

Well I think it is very important for women not to confine their care to their reproductive biology. And is of great interest to me that we do great work on taking care of our children. We know what gender specific medicine is. The pediatricians all know the differences between boys and girls, their developmental changes are quite different, their metabolisms are different. Certainly their brains work differently and all of that is brilliantly cared for by the pediatricians.

Marianne Legato, MD:

The minute a person is 21, the care diverges; and boys are sent to the sports arena, where the coaches take care of most of their medical issues, and girls go guess where, to the gynecologist, where until the first crisis arises, usually at about the age of 40, either imagined or real, the gynecologist is responsible for the complete care of the patient. And because they are sub-specialists, they not only concentrate on reproductive biology, they often do not optimally manage some of the complications that happen with other systems.

Marianne Legato, MD:

So the first thing that I would say that women, in going to a physician ought to remember that there is more to their body, more working parts than just in their pelvis, and there are more cancers than just breast cancer, which in fact does not kill most women, lung cancer does, and they should choose a good general physician to whom they should go at least every two years until they are 40 and every year after that.