Sex and gender: modifiers of health, disease, and medicine

Abstract

Clinicians can encounter sex and gender disparities in diagnostic and therapeutic responses. These disparities are noted in epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, disease progression, and response to treatment. This Review discusses the fundamental influences of sex and gender as modifiers of the major causes of death and morbidity. We articulate how the genetic, epigenetic, and hormonal influences of biological sex influence physiology and disease, and how the social constructs of gender affect the behaviour of the community, clinicians, and patients in the health-care system and interact with pathobiology. We aim to guide clinicians and researchers to consider sex and gender in their approach to diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases as a necessary and fundamental step towards precision medicine, which will benefit men's and women's health.

The Stimulation of Neurogenesis Improves the Cognitive Status of Aging Rats Subjected to Gestational and Perinatal Deficiency of B9–12 Vitamins

“…Nevertheless, deficient males presented poorer retrieval performances in the same multiple T-maze than controls and hypoxic males at day-80. However, this characteristic disappeared with males getting older, suggesting a senescent evolution of all male groups, even non-deficient ones as it has already been shown in rodents or humans [42]. Considering adult females between days-80 and 330, the initial deficient status was correlated with constant poorer memory performances (except at day-205), while the hypoxia status led to comparable results with controls.…”

What’s Testosterone Got to Do with It? A Critical Assessment of the Contribution of Testosterone to Gender Disparities in COVID-19 Infections and Deaths

“…5). [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70] Even when number of comorbidities are matched for men and women, men die at higher rates in every age group. [63][64][65][66][67][68] Men are more likely to suffer from heart disease and chronic lung disease as they are more Traish and Morgentaler; Androgens: Clinical Research and Therapeutics, 2.1 http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/andro.2020.0012…”

Sex-specific and gender-specific aspects in patient-reported outcomes

“…Recent publications additionally discuss interrelation between sex and gender, postulating gendertriggered epigenetic effects to modulate the expression of biological sex. 4 Eventually, differences arising from sex and gender gaps may lead to a differential use of medical services, insufficient treatment of symptoms or greater toxicity of medication. 5 6 To date, there is still little knowledge about the influence of the overall gender spectrum in medicine, which includes transgender, non-binary and genderqueer (TNBGQ) persons.…”