The issue of gender as a bias in medicine has arisen in political circles promoted by representatives like Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), “I’ve had a theory that you fund what you fear. When you have a male-dominated group of researchers, they are more worried about prostate cancer than breast cancer.” (Young and Satel) It may be the rise in female scientists that has triggered the growing trend of research accounting for differences between the sexes. Generally, women get less preventive services than men with male primary care physicians (Franks and Clancy) forming more barriers in health care for women. The National Institute of Health established an Office of Research on Women’s Health in September 1990 to “promote advances in women’s health by promoting partnerships in cross-disciplinary research.” (“About ORWH”) Increases in including women in research, previously a longstanding tradition to exclude the gender, was determined to have reached 94% (grant proposals that included women as subjects) in 1997 as reported from the US Congress Office (richer charities were not considered in this figure because only the government was restricted into new guidelines to include women in research). These government guidelines stemmed from statistics; i.e. before 1994 drugs could be tested solely on men but then marketed for women as well. Further, in 2005 80% of prescription drugs were withdrawn from the US market because of women’s health issues. (Holdcroft)
This bias issue is not one-sided; men too have recently been affected by the rise of focus in women’s health. Men’s health issues get half of the research money allocated to them in comparison to monies granted to women’s research (Young and Satel). Statistically, men do not pay as much attention to their bodies as women do explaining the lower life expectancy in comparison to women (“Men’s Health”). Men are also more likely to die from cancer, accidents, and cardiac disease. Both men and women have health benefits to their race: men have less gender specific issues and women have more research money allocated for research pertaining to them. Gender medicine itself as an emerging branch of science shows the increased focus on differences between men’s and women’s health. With greater understanding of these differences health care can move closer to “fairness” between the sexes.
Opinion: Where should “equality” stop?
In the 1970’s it was a popular belief that gender equality included not specifying the differences between gender (Holdcroft). This pushed aside research on diseases purely male or female, many which can be fatal. Is it sexist to study a disease that is purely male or female? Can it be considered fair to not research gender-specific medicine? This ethical line must a drawn with the thought in mind that the factor of the greatest importance is the health of people. If research on gender specific diseases can propel medicine forward and save lives, whether it is sexist (per the 1970’s popular belief above) or equal should not be of concern.
Sources
“Men’s Health.” MedlinePlus. National Institute of Health, 4 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
“ Welcome to the Center for Gender Medicine at the Institution for Medicine.” Karolinska Institutet. N.p., 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 8 Mar. 2010.
Young, Cathy, and Sally Satel. “The Myth of Gender Bias in Medicine.” Mensight. The Men’s Resource Network, Inc., 10 Feb. 2005. Web. 8 Mar. 2010.
“About ORWH.” Office of Research on Women’s Health. NIH, n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Holdcroft, Anita. “Gender bias in research: how does it affect evidence based medicine? .” Royal Society of Medicine 100.1 (2007): 2-3. Web. 8 Mar. 2010.
Franks, Peter, and Carolyn M Clancy. “Physician Gender Bias in Clinical Decisionmaking: Screening for Cancer in Primary Care.” Medical Care 31.3 (1993): 213-218. JSTOR. Web. 8 Mar. 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3765816
