Women’s rights advocates got a boost yesterday from the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences, the independent organization that provides scientific advice to the federal government. An Institute of Medicine panel, reviewing medical research programs, concluded that sex is a crucial factor in medical research and treatment, and “should be considered when designing and analyzing studies in all areas and at all levels of medical and health-related research.” Feminists have long criticized medical studies that did not include women or analyze possible differences in the way women and men react to drugs or other treatments. Yesterday’s panel called on researchers to design their programs to take sex differences into consideration, and to ensure that results can be analyzed by sex.
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