Women's health

Doctor talking to a patient

Women's health is a topic that still tends to remain in the background when describing the goals of equal participation of women and men in society. Women experience and suffer many illnesses differently than men and often react differently to active ingredients in medication.

Women's health portal

Detailed information from the Federal Center for Health Education on all central topics of women's health

Gender-equitable medicine

It was only in the 1990s that international attention began to be paid to the different requirements of women and men in the healthcare system. American women were the first to discover that the course of diseases can be different and problematized the fact that drugs were only tested on men. Until then, the recognition of different needs was limited to questions of pregnancy, birth and sexual cycles. However, gender-equitable medicine also encompasses all other health issues.

It has been known for some years that the initial symptoms and clinical pictures of women and men can be completely different. For example, a heart attack is traditionally investigated when there is severe pain in the chest that radiates to the rest of the body. It is now known that this is a typically male symptom, while women often complain of non-specific and inconspicuous symptoms such as shortness of breath or nausea. In the past, undetected heart attacks in women therefore often led to death.

But there are also serious differences in other diseases. This applies to rheumatism, for example, but also to cancer and mental illnesses. For example, men suffering from depression tend to be more aggressive, while depressed women tend to be more withdrawn.

Caution is also required with medication. Today, efforts are being made to include more women in studies on new active ingredients. However, the ratio is still far from balanced, so that gender-specific effects are often not recognized. New drugs that work well for men can also be ineffective for women or have undesirable side effects. It is also not uncommon for "old" active ingredients, i.e. drugs that have been on the market for years, to be problematic, as they have never been tested for many (side) effects.