Should women's health be a medical specialty?

The proponents of a new specialty in medicine focusing on women's health are concerned with women's total health needs, much like pediatrics is with children or geriatrics with old people. None of the 7 Lebanese physicians interviewed were aware of this issue. Among them there were 3 female doctors (a family physician, and endocrinologist, and a dermatologist) and 4 male doctors (2 surgeons, a gynecologist, and a cardiologist). The irrelevance of creating such a specialty in the Lebanese reality could be attributed to the absence of a feminist catalyst in Lebanon. All 7 physicians believed that medicine was providing comprehensive care equitably to men and women and argued that the creation of a new specialty would cause further division and segregation between the sexes. All the doctors said that the main reason for not including women in the trial testing of new drugs is fear of interfering with their reproductive system. Drugs may affect the menstrual cycle, the fetus, or the hormonal system and thus cause permanent damage. Because of cultural and traditional value systems, the endocrinologist claimed that in Lebanon men do not get a genital examination as part of a check-up by their general practitioner, and women are not examined if they do not request it themselves. All agreed that the family physician is the best person to provide comprehensive care and to refer the patient to a specialist. All the physicians with different specialties and backgrounds believed that the creation of a new specialty would be illogical or nonsensical. The fact that women doctors shared the opinion of male doctors was intriguing. It raised questions as to whether they had the same opinion or whether they reacted the same way because they belonged to the same community or because of the absence of an aggressive women's liberation movement in Lebanon.