Exploring help seeking behaviour in health : are gender binaries useful?

Abstract

While positivistic research uses male/female, sex or gender as the independent variable to highlight its associations with health experience, qualitative research shows that binary notions of male/ female sex and gender are sometimes insufficient markers of lived reality. This article aims to highlight gendered aspects of the consultative relations that have been shown to have an impact on subsequent medical care provision. It outlines the dynamics within consumer/medical professional relations that are impacted by gender stereotype associations using cardiac symptoms as an example, and then goes on to problematize the binary concept of gender and its impact on health care provision.