Research Inequality Harming Women's Health

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The exclusion of women from clinical trials and other associated medical research is putting the health of millions of women potentially at risk, it has been claimed.

According to University College of London academic Anita Holdcroft, sexual discrimination legislation introduced in the 1970s has done little to rectify the "fundamentally-flawed" imbalances in medical research.

Acknowledging that traditionally women have not been included in clinical trials due to health concerns, Professor Holdcroft contends that "this prohibition has seen an enormous waste of research money and a neglect of gender research".

"Women may have a different drug efficacy or side effect profile to men. Only recently it was reported that eight out of ten prescription drugs were withdrawn from the US market because of women's health issues," she claims in the editorial of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Professor Holdcroft goes on to say that there are "significant barriers" preventing women of child-bearing age from participating in health studies.

"With the advent to gender medicine as a specialty, a woman's reproductive status, menstrual cycle and contraceptive history [have] become significant in studying health and disease. In the UK we should seize the opportunity to establish gender specific evidence based guidance," she concludes.

Commenting on the editorial, Kamran Abbasi, editor of the journal, described gender imbalances in medical research as "abysmal".

"Professor Holdcroft raises fundamental issues not only for researchers and clinicians but also female patients whose care depends on translating relevant research into practice."

This sexual discrimination might make the lives of researchers and sponsors of research much easier but it doesn't help patients," the editor explained.

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