Why counting women in a study is not the same as analysing results by sex and what that distinction means for health evidence and women’s-health innovation.
It’s also crucial to realize that being a man or a woman doesn’t just affect biological disease expression or the possible genetic/biochemical influences that lead to the condition.
It also impacts how the person with that condition is treated in the environment. Which affects if it’s diagnosed at all.
I couldn’t even get proper diagnoses for autism and dysautonomia untik after age 50 for both—despite a literal LIFETIME of disabling symptoms and being called “crazy.” When all I needed was the right environment/accommodations to function.
Today, I am a tangle of autoimmune disease, too, and so medically fragile I couldn’t rejoin the traditional workplace if my life depended on it (I know. I tried. HARD. It only led to trauma).
My conditions were not preventable.
Their present severity was utterly preventable.
And it should not have taken a lifetime to get answers at all. And yeah, I’m a bit angry about it. I’m just trying to use that anger to further awareness however I can these days.
Anyway, thank you again for your amazing and very important article. I hope more people read it!
This is exactly my point with understanding the underpinnings of the DSM and corresponding treatment guidelines for Womens mental health. I did some basic analysis and found women were included in the clinical trials used to determine the treatment guidelines for bipolar, but the same problem existed; we were included, but differences in outcomes weren’t either studied or reported. Keep going with this analysis! It’s important!!
If you are interested, I'd love to have you as a guest on my YouTube channel. DivergentBrainworks.com
NeuroawesomeLife.com
https://www.youtube.com/@neuroawesomelife
I’d love that Dawn-Marie! I’ll send you a message.
So true. Not every study needs to be sex-differentiated. That is overkill. But when it matters, it matters.
100% Lara!
Such a hugely important article. Thank you!
It’s also crucial to realize that being a man or a woman doesn’t just affect biological disease expression or the possible genetic/biochemical influences that lead to the condition.
It also impacts how the person with that condition is treated in the environment. Which affects if it’s diagnosed at all.
I couldn’t even get proper diagnoses for autism and dysautonomia untik after age 50 for both—despite a literal LIFETIME of disabling symptoms and being called “crazy.” When all I needed was the right environment/accommodations to function.
Today, I am a tangle of autoimmune disease, too, and so medically fragile I couldn’t rejoin the traditional workplace if my life depended on it (I know. I tried. HARD. It only led to trauma).
My conditions were not preventable.
Their present severity was utterly preventable.
And it should not have taken a lifetime to get answers at all. And yeah, I’m a bit angry about it. I’m just trying to use that anger to further awareness however I can these days.
Anyway, thank you again for your amazing and very important article. I hope more people read it!
This is exactly my point with understanding the underpinnings of the DSM and corresponding treatment guidelines for Womens mental health. I did some basic analysis and found women were included in the clinical trials used to determine the treatment guidelines for bipolar, but the same problem existed; we were included, but differences in outcomes weren’t either studied or reported. Keep going with this analysis! It’s important!!