Minding the gender gap: The divergence between men's and women's health research

Men and women are different -- in ways beyond anatomy. A push to explore the chasm that separates research could give primary care more insight into the variations.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. March 7, 2005.

Vive la difference!

Science is pointing out new ways to celebrate differences -- specifically those between the sexes -- and recognize that these differences go far beyond the reproductive system to permeate every part of the body. Researchers think that understanding those variations could result in changes in the way all sorts of diseases are diagnosed and treated.

Why should being dealt XY or XX chromosomes at birth have such an all-pervasive influence? The question is intriguing several researchers, and what they uncover could help make all-too-brief office visits more productive for primary care physicians and their patients.

For example, recognizing that 20% of women experience a heart attack by having pain in the upper abdomen could change doctors' responses when female patients complain of indigestion, extreme shortness of breath, sweating and nausea.

"If you're not tuned in, you'll do a gall bladder series or give an antacid for the indigestion and a Valium for the hyperventilation," said Marianne Legato, MD, founder and director of the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University in New York City. The center is a joint effort by Columbia and private sponsors including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Procter and Gamble.

The move toward the study of sex or gender differences -- some speculate that the latter term is used to distinguish these centers from Web sites with a more salacious goal -- represents a sidestep away from the more traditional women's health centers that often were formed to promote the inclusion of more women in clinical trials.