Does gender have an impact on mesothelioma?
When the doctors diagnose you with mesothelioma, they determine your survival rate and what treatment you need using several factors. They could figure it out by your age, medical history, how long you have had the disease and various other conditions. It plays a large role into whether you require simple surgery or periods of chemotherapy.
However, one major factor in determining your survivability rate and treatment is your gender. As it turns out, there is a significant difference between how often men and women survive or obtain mesothelioma. It is crucial to understand what advantages each gender has when it comes to this cancer.
How it is acquired?
The most common occupations for men to acquire mesothelioma are firefighting or working at a construction site, power plant, or shipyard. While there are women within these occupations, men significantly outnumber women in these professions. Because of this, most women often get this disease from secondary exposure. It’s possible for family members to be exposed to dangerous materials by dirty work clothes.
Who has the better survival rate?
Studies have shown that women have a much higher chance of surviving mesothelioma than men. In the first year they have around an 8 percent higher chance of living, but the gap significantly widens in the following years and increases to over 10 percent. While there is no definitive answer as to why this is, many theorize that hormonal differences or a lack of firsthand exposure influence the data. Women also are typically diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma, which has a higher chance of successful treatment than pleural mesothelioma.
Challenges of secondary exposure
While women can rejoice in having a higher chance of beating this awful disease, there is one major drawback. Because the majority of women diagnosed with mesothelioma obtain it from secondary exposure, they have a much harder time obtaining coverage for the medical bills. Since it was often their husband’s occupation that caused this, they cannot apply for workers’ compensation since they do not work at the same place.
Whether you are a man or woman, it is crucial to obtain the right legal assistance in helping you obtain coverage for this devastating disease. Kentucky citizens have the right to take any mesothelioma issues to court in order to obtain sufficient compensation.