“They give us a pill and take us home”

Silvia Rueda, director of the Women and Science Department at the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, says this happens in all areas of science. However, in medicine, the effect of gender bias is more noticeable because it directly affects health. The first problem is that This research is mainly conducted on men.Mint. Even in the initial stages of testing, when experiments are carried out on animals, females are not involved in the process.

The rationale is that women’s hormonal cycles can alter the results. It also makes the process more expensive because the tests have to be done separately for both sexes. These factors have meant that historically they have been considered a standard subject and considered an anomaly. “If we start from this base, we’ll go terribly”Rueda condemns, adding: “You can’t exclude 51% of the population.”

(Dr. Carmona: “If a man had testicular pain three days a month, the world would stop.”)

Another part of this problem is that women have traditionally been excluded from scientific and medical research. “When you need to do some development, what you have around you is very important”– explains the director of the women’s department of the Ministry of Science. If they are not in the laboratories, it is more difficult to develop interest in studying problems that affect only them or mainly them. In addition, Rueda complains that in medicine, with the exception of breast and uterine cancer, pathologies specific to the female sex are not studied.

Endometriosis is a prime example of gender bias. Although it affects 10% of the world’s population, according to the WHO, it has no specific treatment and takes an average of 10 years to diagnose. “If it was something that affected men, it would have been cured long ago.”Rueda’s ruling. Something similar happened with fibromyalgia, women suffer from it much more often than men, and for a long time it was considered a psychological disorder, remember. “We were gone for a long time.”

Another factor that stands out is that although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, most research in this area they don’t take them into account. Carme Vall, a physician specializing in gender medicine, explains in her book Invisible Women in Medicine (Captain Swing, 2020) that they are included in only 38% of studies.

The Director of the Women and Science Department of the Ministry of Science explains that the veins and arteries of a woman’s body are not shaped like those of a man’s. This means that when a problem occurs, they do not have the same symptoms. Evidence of this is heart attacks, which can go unnoticed in women because their symptoms are different from those of men. “They suffer more, but our mortality rate is higher”.

A combination of gender bias and ingrained societal beliefs (such as the idea that a heart attack always causes pain in the left arm) means that sometimes only cardiologists are aware of these differences. Sometimes women themselves are unaware of their symptoms, so they put off going to the doctor. When they leave, if the health care professional doesn’t know how to spot it because it doesn’t fit this standard image, They may leave the emergency room with a diagnosis of anxiety. instead of a heart attack. “They give them a pill and send them home.”

Even feminine hygiene products are susceptible to this bias. A recently published study found that the presence of toxic metals in tamponsincluding lead. For Rueda, this is further evidence of the neglect of women in science and medicine. He calls it “incomprehensible” that this type of data is missing from a product that women have been using for years and that has economic investment built into it. “Since we have no choice but to buy them, they don’t have to innovate (and research) too much,” he laments.

Mental health is also a factor. They are prescribed five times more antidepressants and twice as many anxiolytics than men. “We continue to throw tantrums in front of doctors,” she says. However, the director of the women’s department at the Ministry of Science admits that such behavior is not “malicious or harmful to the patient.” Although the whole situation is widespread, not all professionals are like that, he points out. “You just believe the stereotype and act accordingly.”Rueda argues that this phenomenon occurs because they are still considered very sensitive and prone to complaining.

Women: Majority in Healthcare

Health related careers currently more female students than enrolled male students and there are more of them in the exercise of their profession. Despite this, they continue to occupy the majority of positions of responsibility and “continue to decide what is investigated,” says the director. According to him, one of the greatest achievements of recent years at European and Spanish level has been the requirement that all research must take into account gender issues. Without this requirement, they will not be able to access public funding.

Despite the negative consequences of gender bias, Rueda insists that it can be changed. To achieve this, we must act on many fronts: “When we talk about problems in society that are rooted in culture, there is no single reason“The first thing to do is to make visible what is happening and its impact on women’s daily lives. The solution also involves gender education to end stereotypes and prejudices from a very early age,” she points out.

We also need to find a way to communicate this data to the general population. Rueda believes that they are “fundamental but not empathetic,” and that last quality is important when communicating all this information. “If we are a percentage on a graph that says we are dying more per year, no one will identify with that.”. Rueda sends a message of calm and remembers that the fight for the recognition of women in science in general and in medicine in particular has borne fruit, although it cannot be stopped. “A lot has been done, but we still have to restore the long-standing inequalities.”