Prejudice, devaluation, and discrimination are traits that infiltrate every segment of society, including healthcare. Research indicates a routine doctor appointment could result in any of the following for women:

• Female patients’ symptoms are less likely to be taken seriously by doctors.
• Women are more likely to be misdiagnosed and have their symptoms go unrecognized.
• Women are more likely to be told what they are experiencing is psychosomatic.

The above can be partly attributed to the educational process of health professionals and how research has been historically conducted using primarily male mice and humans. The biological differences between males and females have not been emphasized in training and research and therefore may partially explain the biases women face when seeking diagnoses and the lower quality of care they receive. In 2015, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved flibanserin, used to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in women. Before approval, a study was conducted to determine the interaction between flibanserin and alcohol and used 23 male subjects and 2 female subjects. The drug is only prescribed to females which raises the question of why females were not the majority of subjects. Beginning in 2016, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary funding source in the U.S. for health research, changed their policies as conditions of awarding grants.

• Funding applicants must include female human subjects in research trials.
• Both sexes of animals and cells must be studied, or include a “strong justification” for why they are not.
• Encourages reporting results by sex rather than just lumping male and female subjects together.

These new NIH policies will address some of the issues related to sexism and ultimately lead to better quality of medical care for women.