Editor's note

It’s been a relatively recent discovery in medicine that gender matters when it comes to how various ailments and their treatments affect the sexes.

Historically men were the exclusive models for clinical trials and for anatomy studies. But women aren’t just small men, and we’re starting to learn more about just how different we are – in terms of our development, immune systems, psychology, and in how we’re perceived by clinicians.

In this six part package on gender medicine we explore some of the greatest disparities in health between the sexes.

Sasha Petrova

Deputy Editor, Health + Medicine

Top story

The importance of heart health in women has for many years been invisible. tacit requiem (joanneQEscober )/Flickr

Women have heart attacks too, but their symptoms are often dismissed as something else

Patricia Davidson, Johns Hopkins University

Heart disease has long been considered a man's condition. Our ignorance of its impact on women has led to gaps in outcomes for men and women suffering the same condition.

Medicine and gender

Man flu is real, but women get more autoimmune diseases and allergies

Gabrielle Belz, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute; Cyril Seillet, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

Women have evolved to have stronger immunity than men. But this comes with downsides - women are more likely to have autoimmune diseases due to their "reactive" immune systems.

Biology is partly to blame for high rates of mental illness in women – the rest is social

Jayashri Kulkarni, Monash University

Gender is important in defining susceptibility and exposure to a number of mental health risks. Gender can also explain differences in mental health outcomes.

Both men and women need strong bones, but their skeletons grow differently across ages

Paul Anderson, University of South Australia; Deepti Sharma, University of South Australia; Howard Morris, University of South Australia

Fracture risk is higher in older women than men, but in adolescence the reverse is true. These differences mean our approach to managing bone health for men and women changes across the ages.

Medicine's gender revolution: how women stopped being treated as 'small men'

Deb Colville, Monash University

In medical training and practice, gender differences have at last become a vital part of diagnosis and treatment.

What happens in the womb affects our health as adults, but girls and boys respond differently

Tina Bianco-Miotto, University of Adelaide; Claire Roberts, University of Adelaide

If something goes wrong in pregnancy, a boy baby is more likely to be born malnourished or stillborn than a girl. This may have an evolutionary basis.

 

Featured jobs

Research Assistant/Research Officer

Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute — Melbourne, Victoria

PhD-Scholarship in e- or mHealth

Central Queensland University — Rockhampton City, Queensland

Research Fellow (Epidemiology)

Monash University — Parkville, Victoria

Graduate Services Coordinator (Wellbeing)

University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria

More Jobs
 
 
 
 
 
 

Featured events

Political disenchantment in France & the election of Emmanuel Macron

Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Spencer Rd, Parkville VIC 3052, Parkville, Australian Capital Territory, 3010, Australia — The Conversation

Public debate, democracy and the role of social media. French and Australian perspectives

Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Building, UniSA City West Campus, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia — The Conversation

The Macron phenomenon and Contemporary French political landscape

Alliance Française Brisbane, 262 Montague Road, West End 4101, Brisbane, Queensland, 4101, Australia — The Conversation

Funding Opportunity: Grants for Gambling Research (Round 9)

Level 6, 14–20 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3051, Australia — Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation

More events
 

Contact us here to list your job, or here to list your event.

For sponsorship opportunities, email us here