The lives of women

This is kind of an embarrassing subject, but I'm going to dive in and see how it goes. Yesterday I had my annual "women's health." exam. No woman I know looks forward to that appointment. It's uncomfortable and embarrassing, and I'm always relieved when it's over and I don't have to do it again for another year. But this year, for some reason, the whole experience was different. In fact, I'm not sure I will ever think about that visit quite the same way again.

Because of some recent difficulties in my life, I was extra nervous about this appointment, but the doctor who saw me put me at ease right away. She was kind and professional and took the time to answer my questions and let me be a human instead of just one patient in a long line of patients. She actually made me feel cared for, which is a pretty hard thing to do in the context of one of those dreadful appointments. Her kindness got me thinking about the African refugee women I know and about the women I will spend time with on our upcoming trip to Uganda and Kenya. I started thinking about the millions of women and girls around the world who have no access to any women's health care, let alone kind health care. I thought of the women I know who have have been victims of female circumcision and rape. Of the millions of women who have little say over their own bodies and how they get used, and no one to care for them with kindness and mercy. I thought of the young girls who are forced into sex early and develop fistulas (ruptures that lead to leaking bladders) from rape or childbirth that comes too young. Those girls who suffer twice because they are subsequently shunned from their communities because the way they smell.

I can't even imagine what it's like to walk around in the shoes (or no shoes) of those women around the world who suffer in silence. My few minutes of being uncomfortable and embarrassed each year in the doctor's office are really nothing. I am reminded again of the gap between rich and poor in our world. Access to decent, kind health care should be the right of all people, not just the elite. Next year I will remember my silent, suffering sisters when I call to make my appointment.