In an article recently published in the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, scientists have revealed differences between the sexes when it comes to symptoms of diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis and heart disease and the effects of drugs.
For both women and men, heart disease is the leading cause of death. More specifically, heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. If for males, the most common sign of heart attack is chest pain, heart attack symptoms in women do not always include chest pain but nausea and abdominal pain.
Colon cancer is the second most common form of cancer in both women and men, but in women occurs at an older age. In this case the difference between the two sexes is the area where tumors are located and how they respond to treatment.
In osteoporosis, a condition which occurs more often in women, the risk of death due to fractures is higher in men. Sleeping pills, aspirin or antibiotics can be safely used by men, while for women can be downright dangerous. The reason? Most pills on the market are first tested on men.
Sleeping pills promise usually a restful sleep for eight hours, but women have trouble effectively metabolize substances in these pills, says U.S. Drug Administration. They found, using blood tests, that women bear only 1.75 milligrams of Intermezzo, a powerful sleeping pill, while men need double the amount, around 3.5 milligrams.
Sleeping pills are not the only drugs with harmful effects on women’s health. Equally dangerous are aspirin, anesthetics, antibiotics or medicines to reduce cholesterol, according to Dr. Janine Clayton, Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH).
She said that before 1993, women right the age for conception were excluded from drug tests, so they did not participate in experiments ought to show the role of aspirin in preventing heart disease. That is, 8 out of 10 drugs originally released between 1997 and 2000 are not safe for women.
Propulsid, a pill used to treat the gastrointestinal reflux disease has triggered arrhythmia in more women than men. They are awakening from anesthesia faster and are affected in the long term, shows scientists from the Society for Women’s Health.
A possible reason could be the higher body fat percentage of women and also the menstruation. Some drugs are water based and remain longer in the blood or fat tissue. The body can not eliminate them as quickly and as side effects occur, according to Wesley Lindsey, a professor at Auburn University.
The problem persists even today, only a small fraction of subjects in these tests are women, especially in experiments on the pill for heart and kidney diseases.
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