The Hospital Metropolitano of San José will offer preventive women’s health screenings at a discounted rate throughout March and April. The hospital announced the promotional offer on Tuesday, which was International Women’s Day.
According to a statement released by the hospital, while women have a longer life expectancy than men, more women than men in Costa Rica were hospitalized and required surgery in 2009. The Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja) reported that nearly 2.8 million women were attended to for urgent health issues in 2009, a figure that far exceeded the number of urgent cases for men.
“The modern lifestyles are fast-paced, and by working so much women often don’t take the time to receive preventive health care,” said Roberto Herrera, director of Hospital Metropolitano. “This is reflected in the high incidence rate of health-related emergencies.”
Herrera explained that the reason for the high incidence of health related emergencies stemmed from women neglecting to have routine checkups. He said this often results in women’s illnesses becoming advanced or urgent before patients decide to schedule a hospital appointment.
To combat this trend, the Hospital Metropolitano will offer discounted checkups for women during the next two months. The available checkups and rates are listed below.
In 2009, the National Statistics Institute concluded that the national life expectancy for women is 81.8 years and the life expectancy for men is 76.8 years.