Women generally suffer more pain than men. In particular, they are more often victims of migraines, but also of joint and bone pain.Image: Gaëtan Bally / Keystone
To treat patients, medicine has mainly relied on the male model. This not only poses health problems for women, but also causes the pharmaceutical industry to lose a lot of money.
10.11.2025, 05:3510.11.2025, 05:35
Annika Bangerter / ch media
Women and men react differently to medications. They can present distinct symptoms for the same disease and therefore require adapted treatments. However, medical research has for decades been based mainly on the male body.
This choice was explained by the desire to protect pregnant women, but also by hormonal variations linked to the female menstrual cycle, which complicate the conduct of clinical studies by making their conception more costly and longer.
Studies are done on men
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Specialists in gender medicine, such as Carolin Lerchenmüller from the University of Zurich, point out that women today still remain largely under-represented in clinical trials. However, it is well established that they metabolize drugs differently than men.
Due to the lack of research on the female burden of disease, many data gaps persist for women. This lack of knowledge can have serious, even fatal, consequences for them.
Medical inequality between the sexes also results in significant economic costs. The losses are particularly heavy when women, due to illness or health problems, are forced to work less or no more.
Huge financial losses
But this injustice also has a considerable economic impact. According to a study published in 2024 by McKinsey and the World Economic Forum, global growth could increase by a billion dollars per year if women benefited from medical care equivalent to that of men.
Study co-author Valentina Sartori said at the Swiss Gender Medicine Symposium held recently in Bern:
“Women certainly live longer than men, but spend on average 25% of their lives in poorer health”
The specialist clarified that this higher burden of morbidity was not explained by the greater life expectancy of women. More than half of the years lived in poor health concern women aged 20 to 70, that is to say people who have a professional activity. Many therefore cannot reach their full potential.
The greater burden of morbidity among women goes far beyond gynecological issues, continues Valentina Sartori. Only 5% of diseases that affect women concern specifically female conditions, such as ovarian cancer or disorders linked to menopause.
On the other hand, more than 50% of health problems correspond to diseases that affect women disproportionately, or which manifest differently in them, such as autoimmune diseases or migraine. The remaining 43% concern pathologies which, according to current knowledge, do not affect women differently or more frequently.
There is a lack of investment
For pharmaceutical companies, gender medicine therefore holds significant economic potential, explains Valentina Sartori. The latter cites as an example the chronic disease that is endometriosis, from which one in 10 women suffer.
Type 2 diabetes affects a similar proportion of the adult population. However, some 580 active substances are currently the subject of clinical trials for diabetes, compared to only 20 for endometriosis. The expert emphasizes:
“To date, there is no approved treatment for endometriosis. Only surgical intervention can sometimes bring improvement, but it does not constitute a cure.”
Compared to diabetes, this difference reveals an obvious imbalance. According to Sartori, the lack of medical equality between the sexes can also be explained by the relatively low investment in women’s health.
A lot of research will take place
It should nevertheless be noted that an important step was taken this year with the launch of the national research program “Gender, medicine and health”, approved by the Federal Council in 2023. This program revealed that there are already a number of ideas and approaches for studying sex-related differences in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases.
During the symposium on gender medicine, Carole Clair, professor at the University of Lausanne and president of the steering committee of the research program, confirmed this enthusiasm. 140 proposals were submitted. Faced with this enthusiasm, she declared:
“It was a success, and even a surprise”
Before the launch, some doubted whether there would be enough projects. “We were asked if we would have enough material,” says Carole Clair. The budget of eleven million francs ultimately made it possible to finance 19 projects.
For the professor one thing is certain, the program must continue beyond the planned 4 years. She calls for perseverance:
“We want to bring together all the stakeholders involved in order to move this field forward”
Translated from German by Joel Espi
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