Gender Gap in Health Care Jim Lehrer News Hour 4-25-01 Tape #54 0:26:10 - 0:37:30

Report on gender bias in health care, "Does Sex Matter," was released on 4-25-01 Heart disease in women has been misdiagnosed, because women have been excluded from clinical trials in most areas of health care. And the efficacy of many drugs in women is not known, even though they are routinely prescribed. This report recommends research on sex differences in biology. In the past, data have been gathered on sex differences only as byproducts of other research. Now it is time to study sex differences in their own right.

The News Hour interviewed Professor Sally Shaywitz, Yale University Medical School. Sex-based differences are even greater than we thought before. They are at the fundamental biological level. At every level there are sex differences. Every cell is different between male and female. This new knowledge will help us better treat brain strokes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other auto-immune diseases. Males, for example, are more likely to have decrements in verbal ability after a stroke. Functional MRIs reveal that female brains are more bi-lateral than male brains. Therefore verbal ability, for example, is processed in both hemispheres in females thus providing more protection for women. Even though these brain differences exist, males and females are just as accurate in verbal ability and respond just as quickly. This is not about who is better. These new research findings will allow more precise prescriptions for females and males.