Fixing medicine’s gender gap

Sex and gender affect all aspects of our health and wellbeing, from the risk of developing different conditions through to the way that those conditions express and how we may respond to different treatments. But historically, sex and gender have been ignored when it comes to medical research. From basic and preclinical research in cells, tissues and animals through to human clinical trials males have served as the research subject default for centuries, and it has been assumed that evidence from these male studies is equally applicable to females.

This data gap in medical research is having real-life disadvantages for 51% of the population; women are more likely to wait longer for a diagnosis, be misdiagnosed or experience an adverse drug reaction. But making medical research more inclusive of sex and gender will not just help those who are currently underrepresented, it will drastically improve health outcomes for everyone.