Bias in Medical Research Perils Women, House Told

Government medical research is so sexually biased that even male laboratory rats are the preferred animal for studies, according to congressional testimony today.

“What it’s really saying is, it’s OK to put women’s health at risk,” Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health and the Environment.

She was among critics who say clinical trials and the resulting data are skewed in favor of men.

The lack of gender-specific data “communicates to doctors that women really aren’t that much at risk,” she said. As a result, women’s problems often aren’t taken seriously until they reach a critical stage.

The National Institutes of Health has a $7.6-billion research budget this year. An NIH advisory committee reported in 1987 that less than 14% of the institute’s budget went to women’s health issues even though women make up more than half the population, Schroeder said.

Only $17 million is spent on basic breast cancer research annually, and less than 2% of NIH grants for research went to obstetric and gynecological programs in 1986 and 1987, she said.

Heart disease and cancers of the lung and breast are the top killers of women.