Does sex and gender bias affect scientific and medical practice?

Abstract

Throughout history, women have been subjected to myths about their "mysterious biology" that have impacted and influenced the way we continue to do science nowadays. Like any other field of human activity, the fields of science and medicine are also conditioned by the historical and cultural moment in which they find themselves, causing the presence of certain biases in their practice. Historically, the fact of having focused solely on the reproductive health of women, which is known as "biological essentialism", has represented one of the main sexist biases. By ignoring the other fields of health that can affect women’s health more beyond reproduction. At the beginning of modern medicine, it was thought that diseases did not have sex, that they were the same in men and women. Men were studied and the results were extrapolated to women assuming that the results would be the same. A good science of the difference is therefore necessary to achieve the best possible medical care. It is also important, especially in the field of research, to begin to differentiate between the term "sex", to refer to those biological characteristics with which we are born, and the term "gender", to refer to social construction.