HEY, MEDICINE: STOP IGNORING THE EXISTENCE OF WOMEN
The gender divide seems to bisect every corner of life, from wages to diaper duty. And over the past decade, research has revealed that the laboratory is no exception. Although Congress, in 1993, mandated that clinical research include women, the preclinical studies that lead to clinical trials are a different story: Most scientists still use only male cells and animals at the preclinical trial stage.
That worries Janine Clayton, MD, who directs the Office of Research on Women’s Health for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Women are more likely than men to suffer adverse effects of many medications, and the Ambien incident — in which the FDA halved the recommended dose for women after a study showed that they metabolize the sleep aid more slowly than men — revealed only a sliver of the problem. Knowing how female cells and animals respond differently to active ingredients would allow scientists to fine-tune earlier, before human trials. More broadly, this gap in our understanding of female biology means clinicians lack evidence to make the best treatment decisions for women.