An Atypical Tribute to Women
For decades, medicine and science have ignored crucial differences between women and men, treating the male body as the standard. This has led to inadequate female representation in clinical trials, misdiagnoses, and a higher risk of injuries. It’s time for change—women’s health and safety can no longer be considered “atypical”!
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For decades, science, medicine, and technology have assumed that the only significant differences between male and female bodies are size and reproductive function. As a result, the male body has been treated as the “norm,” while anything deviating from it is labeled “atypical.” In medical textbooks, the most common reference point is a “typical 70 kg man.”
Here are some striking examples:
📌 Heart failure research – In major studies conducted between 1987 and 2012, women made up only 25% of participants.
📌 Clinical drug trials – Women account for just 22% of participants, and when included, they are often tested during the phase of their cycle when their body most closely resembles a male’s. Researchers rarely test how drugs affect women across different cycle phases.
📌 Female Viagra – In 2015, the pharmaceutical company Sprout Pharmaceuticals launched a drug designed for women’s sexual health. When concerns arose about its interaction with alcohol, the study was conducted on… 23 men and only 2 women.
📌 Depression – Women are 70% more likely than men to experience depression, yet most brain research in animals is conducted on males.
📌 Heart attacks – Only 1 in 8 women experiences the typical male symptoms. For most women, key signs include shortness of breath, digestive issues, and back pain. The result? Frequent misdiagnoses because they don’t present the “standard” male symptom—chest pain.
📌 Crash tests – For years, standard crash test dummies were based on male proportions, making women 47% more likely to suffer serious injuries in car accidents. Only recently have advanced female dummies, like the THOR-5F, been introduced, accounting for anatomical differences such as more delicate joints and a wider pelvis.
📌 Medical dismissals – Women are far more likely than men to be sent home from a doctor’s office with a vague diagnosis like: “atypical symptoms, just your natural physiology.”
So here’s to a future where no woman has to grit her teeth and tolerate things she never agreed to!
