أحكام مسبقة و نقص في المعلومات الطبية بمناسبة يوم المرأة - les stéréotypes de l'information médicale

Association marocaine des maladies auto-immunes et systémiques
 .. . .

Dr MOUSSAYER KHADIJA 
Spécialiste en médecine interne et en Gériatrie
Présidente de l’Alliance Maladies Rares au Maroc 
Présidente de l’association marocaine des maladies auto-immunes et systémiques (AMMAIS)
 , Vice-présidente du Groupe de l’Auto-Immunité Marocain (GEAIM)
Chairwoman of the Moroccan Autoimmune and Systemic Diseases Association
Membre de la Société Marocaine de Médecine Interne (SMMI), Vice-présidente de l’association marocaine des intolérants et allergiques au gluten (AMIAG), Vice-présidente de
l'association marocaine de la fièvre méditerranéenne familiale (AMFMF), Vice-présidente de l’association marocaine des malades d’angioedèmes (AMMAO) 
International Women's Day, March 8, 2019 :
discriminations and stereotypes in health information
International Women's Day, March 8, 2019, is an opportunity to warn about inequalities, discrimination and
stereotypes that continue to affect women in medical information and awareness campaigns related to it .
These gaps concern major issues of public health and have a significant impact on the health of women,
particularly in intermediate countries such as Morocco.
AN UNKNOWN PHENOMENON : AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE, A FEMININE
DISEASE THAT REACHES A WOMAN IN SIX DURING THEIR LIFE
This is the subject of autoimmune diseases: these many pathologies ̵; a hundred – concern women in 75%
of cases ! In addition, the third leading cause of morbidity in the world after cardiovascular diseases and
cancers, they affect about 10% of the world population and occupy the second or third position of the health
budget in developed countries. In total, it is estimated that the number of women with autoimmune diseases
is twice as high as that of women with breast cancer and almost one and a half times higher than those
affected by coronary heart disease! This autoimmune phenomenon is a very rare example of physiological
inequality to the detriment of women. It is well recognized by the medical community but largely ignored by
the general public, not only Moroccan but also French to a lesser extent, because it is not better publicized.
It deserves, however, to be the subject of wide awareness campaigns directed at women, such as cancer,
especially since these diseases often attack insidiously young women by presenting beginning of the little
perceptible symptoms, appearing and disappearing and even putting in doubt the existence of an evil. In
fact, their diagnosis is often late.
THE MAJORITY OF DEATHS RELATED TO THE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION
CONCERNED TODAY WOMEN
Another example: the risk of myocardial infarction continues too often to be associated in the countryside
sensitization, particularly in the Maghreb, like a middle-aged man. As a result, the disease is under-
diagnosed in women because their complaints are not fully understood before the crisis. This explains why
women now represent of deaths by infarction. A study conducted by McGill University in Montreal in 2014
has indeed shown that this informative "bias" is unconsciously translated by prejudices and "gender"

stereotypes about how to treat a patient by gender. University researchers asked 1,123 hospital patients,
all with acute coronary syndrome, to respond to a questionnaire after admission. The findings revealed that
electrocardiograms and defibrillations were performed faster on men than on women. Health staff, less
responsive to women, was more inclined to rule out the hypothesis of infarction by attributing more easily
the discomfort of a patient and her chest pain to anxiety disorders ( the famous feminine psychosomatic
weakness!)
These two examples are far from anecdotal when we know that clinical studies, in the context of
therapeutic trials, are mostly conducted in male subjects, mistakenly thinking that "what is good and
validated in men is also good for women ". Some research on the risk of gynecological cancers have even
been conducted in men! It has only been 15 years since European legislation required the recruitment of
women in clinical trials .
All in all, significant efforts have been made in recent years to raise awareness, in Morocco and in France,
of women's "female" health problems (gynecology, pregnancy, breast cancer, slimming, etc.), but there is
still much to do to raise women's awareness of certain other major public health issues and to put an end to
certain stereotypes that still have a "hard life." ‘(automatic translation Via Google)
Mots clés / Key Words : journée internationale des droits des femmes, information médicale, maladies auto-immunes, maladies rares, association
marocaine des maladies auto-immunes et systémiques (AMMAIS), journée internationale des maladies rares, seconde journée nationale des maladies rares au
Maroc, santé publique, santé Maroc, Maghreb, Algérie, Tunisie, Afrique Noire, Sénégal, Côte d’Ivoire, United States of America, American Autoimmune Related
Diseases Association – AARDA, Alliance des Maladies Rares au Maroc (AMRM), Ministère de la Santé, Royaume du Maroc, Médecine interne, féminisme,
égalité homme/femme, OMS, ONU, Autoimmune diseases, myocardial infarction , awareness campaign, underdiagnosed, clinical trials, internal medecine,
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