Ten years ago, a woman suffering a heart attack was too often misdiagnosed.Without the chest pains commonly seen in men, her symptoms of dizziness or backpain were often dismissed as unimportant.

If she did happen to be taken seriously, her doctor might have given her adiagnostic test. But some tests, doctors now know, aren't reliable when used inwomen.

Today, however, a woman in cardiac arrest is more likely to be diagnosedproperly and live to tell about it. In fact, thanks in large part to anunprecedented national focus on women's health, women are being moreeffectively screened and treated for a whole host of diseases.

"Women's health has moved beyond something people just talk about at thepolicy level," says Elena Rios, M.D., Executive Director of the NationalHispanic Medical Association.

According to the National Institutes of Health, screening for cervicalcancer has resulted in a 40% decline in the incidence and death from thedisease since 1970. Similarly, the death rate for breast cancer declined by 6%just between 1990 and 1994.

"Now we're going beyond screening, to improving management and treatmentof diseases," says Rios. Women are being diagnosed earlier and livinglonger. But, she stresses, the way women are educated and treated once they arediagnosed still needs improvement.

The Long Road to Equality

Progress in women's health has been a long time coming, says Rios. Women'sissues didn't come to the forefront of politics until there were enough womenin Congress to keep them on the agenda. At first, she says, female politiciansfocused on equal rights and other equity issues. In the mid-1980s, they gotaround to health care. "Since then, women's health has gotten moreattention and more support."

The advancement of women in other areas of society has also fueled progress,says Cindy Pearson, Executive Director of the National Women's Health Network,an industry watchdog group in Washington, D.C. "We've finally cracked theold-fashioned notions that only men can be professionals," Pearson says.That changing notion has meant more women have become health careprofessionals. "Women now make up over 40% of medical students,"Pearson says.

But some old-fashioned notions still persist. A 1993 study by TheCommonwealth Fund -- a private foundation that supports research on health andsocial issues -- found that some health providers still give women lessthorough evaluations than men for similar complaints. They may give less weightto women's symptoms, provide fewer interventions for the same diagnoses, andgive less explanation in response to questions.

But, says Pearson, communication is getting easier as women become moreinvolved in the health care system. Women are interacting with more femalephysicians, as well as with an increasing number of counselors and nursepractitioners -- most of whom are also female -- who now provide both care andinformation that once was provided only by doctors.