Patients who participate in decision-making might have improved health outcomes, according to an expert on women's health.
Dr Ann McPherson is a GP in Oxford who has written widely on women's and teenagers' health problems.
She was in Dublin on Saturday to address a conference on "Women Taking Control of their Health", hosted by the Irish College of General Practitioners and the Women's Health Council.
The Women's Health Council will report to the Minister for Health on promoting women's health. She stressed the importance of not taking a narrow view of women's health. More women than men died from diseases of the circulatory system.
The incidence of lung cancer among women was nearly as high as breast cancer.
Comparison of the Irish and EU figures showed that heart disease, diseases of the circulatory system and lung disease were all higher in Ireland.
"All these are linked to the fact that women smoke earlier in Ireland," she said.
Referring to the consultation process which led to the setting up of the council, she said it concentrated on taking control of illness, rather than health. "It was not about not smoking, good diet and exercise. We must also remember that poverty is the major cause of ill-health."
She agreed much of what she said applied to men as well as women, but said women had much more contact with the medical profession through childbirth, contraception, taking children to the doctor, being carers and, more recently, the medicalisation of the menopause.
Ms Noreen Kearney, of the Women's Health Council, said the consultation process showed women still lacked essential information about their health.
"Even nurses sometimes did not know when they were fertile," she said. "There was a lot of concern around reproductive health, a lot of attendance at doctors around problems with things like menstruation.
"We need research, for example, on depression. Is it higher for women because of their difficulty to get help in the terms that they want?"
Dr Michael Boland said this was the first meeting between the representative body of general practitioners and an organised consumer group.
"It's very important that we reach a consensus so that we avoid a situation where we're advising the Minister in one direction and we're advising him in another," he said.
He stressed the gender balance in general practice was changing, with up to 90 per cent of those taking post-graduate training in general practice now being women.
There was also an increased role now for practice nurses, who now numbered about 700. They were involved in preventative care such as immunisation and cervical screening, he said.