‘There are many women who are successful in the scientific world. I have never thought there is something I cannot do because I am a woman,’ says PhD student Aranka Ballering. She is conducting a research which shows that, when it comes to patients with common complaints, it can have large consequences when a general practitioner differentiates based on gender and sex.
For a long time, history was not on the side of the female patient. ‘Some 15 to 20 years ago, it was common that women were less actively asked to participate in medical scientific research, as their hormonal balance would be “complicated”, among other things’, Aranka explains. ‘The man was the golden standard, because he was nicely consistent, without a menstruation cycle and menopause.’
A consequence of doing research without taking into account sex, could be seen recently, notices Aranka. ‘The research results on COVID-vaccines were not specified for different sexes. Even though this does happen more often nowadays, she says. ‘Scientists that apply for research subsidies, have to describe in their proposal how they will deal with gender and sex.’
Aranka’s promotion research is part of a health program of ZonMw on gender and sex differences. ‘Sex is about the physical genus of people, gender is about the social aspect of being a man or woman.’ One of the results from her research showed that women with physical complaints are less often referenced to a medical specialist. ‘That does not necessarily have to be wrong, for instance when you know from clinical experience that a certain headache in women often passes on its own. However, the balance between equity and reality is delicate. It is about the doctor being aware that this might not apply to the patient in their consultation room.’
Aranka emphasizes that with her research, she is building on the work of scientists and doctors who have already been asking attention for gender and sex in healthcare. ‘Cardiologists Janneke Wittekoek and Angela Maas have, for example, paved the way for research on diseases and health of women, and how this differs compared to that of men.’ The fact that this is important, is becoming clearer. It turned out, for example, that women and men can have very different symptoms when having a heart attack. ‘When a woman has no pain on the chest, but is dizzy or has pain in the jaw and this is not recognized as a symptom, it could have serious consequences.’
Sometimes, she is told that of course female patients turn out to be at a disadvantage in her research, as she is herself a woman. ‘One time, I even got the comment: “Oh girl, what would you know about doing research?”. I had to take a step back at that moment.’ Naturally, the world will not immediately change based on these kind of research results. ‘What I do hope, and what is also quite necessary, is that doctors will become much more aware of the influence gender and sex can have on sickness and health.’