Definitely different

Just as bold colours and diamanté revolutionised trainers for women – casting aside heels in the process – a trailblazing movement led by ‘Women in Pharma’ is on a mission to revolutionise healthcare with its recently launched campaign ‘Beyond Bikini Medicine’.

This energetic and visionary call to action challenges the life sciences industry to lace up for a marathon toward ‘gendered medicine’, where every stride is informed by curiosity about the differences between biological genders.

But why the urgent need for change and what makes the current model as outdated as heels for the office? Sarah and Miriam jump right in and drag the conversation right out.

At the heart of our current healthcare model lies a critical wrong assumption that we call ‘Bikini Medicine’.

This approach, as narrow in scope as the garment it’s named after, assumes that biologically women and men are the same apart from the bits that go under a bikini, explains Sowerby.

It’s a glaring oversight going right back to Socrates. Virtually every cell in the human body is sex-specific (XX and XY) and the biological soup in which our cells live is either predominantly shaped by testosterone in men or oestrogen in women.

Just to be clear we’re talking biological gender here, not the social dimension.

Being either biologically male or female shapes how we experience stress and emotions, process food, and store fat and muscle.

Epigenetics, how our bodies respond to our behaviours and environments, is now known to play a significant role in the development and progression of many diseases.

This combination of chromosomal, hormonal and environmental differences between the genders shapes the diseases we are prone to, how they manifest, the symptoms we experience and treatment outcomes.

Yet, the medical world has largely treated women as ‘smaller men’. Consequently, there is a huge knowledge gap in truly understanding how each body-type functions differently and the diseases we each experience leading to slow or incorrect diagnoses, ineffective treatments and adverse drug reactions, particularly in women.

When you start to think about it seems obvious! And yet the whole of medicine has been based on this incorrect foundational belief leading to a huge health gap for women and a huge opportunity for the industry to reinvent itself and create powerful new health solutions for men and women alike.

Imagine a healthcare system as innovative and inclusive as the latest tech-savvy trainers. The Beyond Bikini Medicine movement envisions just that – a world where ‘gendered medicine’ is the standard, not the exception.

This paradigm shift recognises that ignoring gender differences can no longer be an option in a field that strives for precision and personalisation.

Just as, over time, we have discovered that the world is not flat, that the Earth is not the centre of the universe and that life has progressed through evolution, we can’t un-know our biological sex differences and the potential benefits of gendered medicine. This IS the next paradigm shift for healthcare.

Women tend to be less susceptible to infectious diseases and hypertension, while also having a lower overall incidence of cancer than men.

However, the prevalence of autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, depression and anxiety disorders is relatively higher in women. Women and men also differ in their susceptibility to metabolic disorders, such as insulin resistance and diabetes.

Meanwhile, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is traditionally viewed as a man’s illness, despite more women dying from it annually. Indeed, the difference in how CVD manifests and is treated between genders highlights a glaring gap in our healthcare system.

Women are 50% more likely to receive an incorrect initial diagnosis post-heart attack, a stark indicator of the current model’s failure to accommodate gender differences.

Men and women also differ in how their respiratory systems develop and respond to hormones. Early in life, female sex hormones promote lung development and maturation, while androgens appear to impair respiratory function.

After puberty, a ‘switch’ occurs: increasing androgen levels improve airway inflammation, but fluctuations in female hormones throughout the menstrual cycle can promote asthma exacerbations.

Women experience pain conditions more often and more intensely than do men. Female pain is often underestimated by healthcare professionals, who can view it as psychosomatic, whereas male pain is seen as organic, and this can affect management.

Women continue to struggle with ‘mystery symptoms’ for years without proper diagnosis and treatment.

In a survey of 1,000 women in the UK, a third of those with traditional ‘women’s health’ conditions such as endometriosis, heavy menstrual bleeding, thyroid issues and gynaecological cancers had yet to receive a formal diagnosis, with an average waiting time of over two years and with a quarter enduring symptoms that harmed their mental health.

The current one-size-fits-all approach in medical research and treatment overlooks these disparities, leading to a one-step-forward-two-steps-back situation in patient care.

The consequences of maintaining the status quo are too significant to ignore.

Women experience adverse drug reactions nearly twice as often as men, a direct result of clinical trials’ historical male bias.

Moreover, diseases predominantly affecting women, like migraine, headaches and endometriosis, are notoriously underfunded in biomedical research.

This isn’t just a women’s issue – it’s a societal one, with implications that ripple out to affect us all. A recent report from the World Economic Forum has shown that investments aimed at closing the gap in women’s health could extend both lifespan and quality of life, potentially injecting an extra $1 trillion into the global economy annually by 2040.

The Beyond Bikini Medicine movement is not just challenging the status quo; it’s an opportunity to redefine healthcare for future generations.

Join the movement and together we can stride confidently toward a future where healthcare is truly personalised, inclusive and equitable.

Download the White Paper, share views and challenge the status quo.
Go to womeninpharma.network/campaign/beyond-bikini-medicine