‘It’s not just about treatment but also about testing and diagnosis where women are getting a tougher deal’ Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
“If you were a young boy, I could present you a bouquet medicines, Unfortunately for both of us, you’re a sweet young girl,” my daughter’s neurologist said as she wrote her prescription. And then he began to list the potential side effects, some mild, some severe. Just three decades ago, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act of 1993 mandated the inclusion of “women and minorities” in clinical trials to reduce health disparities. Yet, to date, the male model of medicine There is a flourishing, and so is the tendency to treat women as little men, despite a growing body of research emphasizing physical differences (beyond reproductive organs) between the sexes. Genetic and epigenetic differences between men and women are also widely documented.
generic drugs, testing, mental health
In India, the “pharmacy of the world”, the gender disparity in clinical trials has even bigger implications, thanks to generic drug production and consumption. Various studies have demonstrated that women’s bodies react differently to the ingredients of generic drugs.
Professor Cassandra Soeke, director of the Healthy Aging Program at the University of Melbourne, Australia, says that thanks to the recent inclusion of women in clinical trials of generic drugs, we now know that “about one-fifth of the active drugs Dosage between men and women”. For decades women have either been taking higher doses, as in the case of zolpidem, a common sleep drug, or not getting enough due to their under-representation in clinical trials. Has been, as is the case with many pain medications.
It is not only about treatment but also about testing and diagnosis where women are getting a tough deal. Take mental health, for example. According to a study conducted in Tamil Nadu by Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo along with their research partners, “26 percent of men and 31 percent of women aged 61-70 have symptoms that indicate a high likelihood of depression.” “.
The study strongly notes that depression rates and anxiety prevalence are higher for women than for men worldwide in general. Ernst R. This can be added to a study on human capital by Berndt et al., which noted that women with an early onset of depression were “less likely to earn a college degree and less likely to earn a master’s degree.” The chances are slim”. We see here a vicious cycle of under-representation of women.
Like depression, cardiovascular issues are now acknowledged to be slightly more prevalent in women. Yet, they are diagnosed and treated like ‘lesser men’. Study after study shows that even in developed countries like Canada and Sweden, women are less likely to have access to appropriate drugs, diagnostic tests, and diagnostic procedures. The stereotype of the “hysterical woman” continues to plague women even when they require immediate clinical intervention.
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gaps that can be linked to indifference
The exclusion of women from clinical trials and research projects addressing sex-agnostic serious diseases such as cancer and heart disease has resulted in limited understanding of sex-specific symptoms and responses to treatment. When it comes to issues related to sex-specific diseases such as breast or endometrial cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome and pregnancy, there are serious gaps in research that can only be explained by indifference to issues “for women”. United States-based studies suggest that funding received for research into migraine, endometriosis, and anxiety disorders is disproportionate to the burden of these diseases.
‘If men menstruated there would be multi-million dollar projects studying cramps’ – this meme isn’t funny anymore when you look at the death rate due to poor reproductive health. Figures from the World Health Organization for 2017 show that “about 808 women die every day due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth”. Almost all of these were preventable but occurred “due to the interaction between pre-existing medical conditions and pregnancy”. Pregnant women are further down the ladder of representation in clinical trials and research.
In a just world, women would be accepted as an individual category with caste, age and class as subcategories. And equal time and resources will be spent finding and providing treatment and health care. How can women aspire to access equal health care when women’s illnesses are not even understood?
to note for india
India has many progressive policies regarding women’s health, including abortion rights. It is time for policy interventions in the area of sex-specific research in medicine and implementation of results.
India’s G-20 presidency may be an opportune time to highlight this issue in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals on women’s health.
Delhi-based writer and academic Nishtha Gautam is co-editor of Strategic Affairs Vol. In Difficult Times: Security in a Time of Insecurity’