Australia’s largest health and medical research funding body has recommended sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation be routinely considered in health and medical research.
When Cheryl Carcel was in medical school, little attention was paid to the role that sex and gender can play in the detection and treatment of many major diseases.
Last year, she co-authored a study investigating the medical care that people with stroke receive before arriving at hospital in NSW, and found women were less likely to have their stroke recognised compared to men.
[Women] were thought to be having a migraine, high blood pressure, or some type of headache or nausea,” she said.
Stroke isn’t unique in this regard: women are less likely to be diagnosed and appropriately treated if they suffer a serious heart attack, less likely to have chronic pain acknowledged and treated, and more likely to be misdiagnosed or discharged during a serious medical event.
A growing body of evidence suggests there are clinically significant sex and gender differences across a broad range of diseases, from susceptibility and screening to risk factors, treatment and prognosis.
A recent study showed while women were over-represented in research perceived to ‘female-patient’ dominated, they were they were significantly under-represented in other areas, such as cardiology.
“We see in practice, for example, that women are 50 per cent more likely to have adverse reactions to drugs and vaccines than men; that pain medications don’t work as effectively in women as they do in men; and that women are more likely to develop chronic pain conditions and addictions to pain medication.”
In Australia, research shows women disproportionately experience delayed diagnosis, overprescribing, and a failure to have their symptoms properly investigated.
Source: Medical research suffers from sex and gender bias. New standards hope to change that – ABC News
