Healthy Debates

Issue: The Care of Female Service Members
10/6/2009 - 11/3/2009

As we recognize Women’s Health Month this October, we thought it pertinent to ask health.mil readers what the Department of Defense should continue, improve or change to better support the health of female service members, particularly the wounded, ill or injured.

What programs or services are working well? For example, have products such as A Guide to Female Soldier Readiness helped females and their leaders protect force readiness without impacting day-to-day operations?

Is there a specific policy or operational issue MHS leadership should take a closer look at to better support female service members in theater?

What about the care and well-being for both military women and military spouses at home?

Do research, education and training in the MHS adequately support the female service member?

Where does the female military community turn for support?

We look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Please keep in mind that this forum is available to debate DoD health policy and operational issues. Your comments will be passed along to MHS senior leaders for their consideration.

We expect that participants will treat each other with respect. All comments will be reviewed before posting. We will not post comments that contain vulgar language; personal attacks of any kind; or offensive terms that target specific groups. We will not post comments that are spam, are clearly off topic or that promote services or products. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also not be posted. For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain on-topic.

Thank you for all your comments. This debate is now closed. All other previously approved comments can be read below.

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Comments (2)

Virginia Schmied at 2009-10-06 16:24:23 wrote:

One improvement would be to standardize requirements. If the ACOG and ACS recommendations for women's health exams are Pap smear every 1-3 years based on age and risk factor, it seems that we could implement that across all platforms, with a requirement that all women will have a current Pap smear prior to deployment (e.g. so that a woman is never out of periodicity.)
Second, ensure that all providers are giving information and not opinions on pregnancy - all American women have a legal right to abortion, and if the provider is opposed on moral grounds, then that woman deserves to see another provider without first being lectured!

Amanda Gentry at 2009-10-06 17:34:08 wrote:

Women's Health has been a topic of discussion since women have been approved for deployment with the Armed Forces. As an Active Duty member of the Armed Forces I would like to say that the female community could turn to each other for support. But all too often I have seen women at odds because of their jobs, shifts, personalities, or backgrounds. This can make it difficult for leaders to get an accurate take on whether or not there is a true issue with some women individually because they withdraw so they do not have to continually confront their fellow Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen/Marines. It also makes it difficult for the woman to go to their leadership because they do not want to be known as the "weak link" so they "suck it up" until they either heal, suffer permanent damage, or break and have to be returned to CONUS for extensive treatment. We are trying to undo all of the damage that was done in the past by discouraging our young military members from going to sick call for injuries or illness so they can get appropriate treatment. We need to ensure that our young women know that seeking treatment, whether for injury, illness, or for OB/GYN needs, it does not make them the "weak link". It makes them human, and will keep them healthy and fit.

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