January 25, 2021
This course was developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), with funding support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Click here for information on course authors, reviewers, and leadership.
January 25, 2021
Bench to Bedside: Integrating Sex and Gender to Improve Human Health was developed in partnership with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Women's Health (OWH) to explore sex- and gender-related differences in key disease areas. Click here for information on course authors, reviewers, and leadership.
Bench to Bedside: Integrating Sex and Gender to Improve Human Health Course
January 25, 2021
Contrary to previous findings, low-dose aspirin therapy before conception and during early pregnancy may increase pregnancy chances and live births among women who have experienced one or two prior miscarriages, suggests a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Rather than looking solely at the difference in pregnancy rates between women who were given aspirin and those receiving a placebo, the study also accounted for differences in total aspirin use between women who deviated from the daily regimen and those who adhered to it.
Low-dose aspirin may improve pregnancy chances for women with one or two prior miscarriages
January 25, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of American life, including how people work, get an education, connect with their family and friend networks and fill their social calendars. Despite quarantine orders that forced many people to stay home and spend more time with their families, a new Pew Research Center analysis of October 2020 survey data finds that many of the dynamics between couples haven’t changed much during this turbulent time.
For American couples, gender gaps in sharing household responsibilities persist amid pandemic
January 25, 2021
In both animals and human beings, males and females differ in their genetic background and hormonally driven behaviour and show sex-related differences in brain activity and response to internal and external stimuli. Gender-specific medicine has been a neglected dimension of medicine for long time, and only in the last three decades it is receiving the due scientific and clinical attention. Research has recently begun to identify factors that could provide a neurobiological basis for gender-based differences in health and disease and to point to gonadal hormones as important determinants of male-female differences. Animal studies have been of great help in understanding factors contributing to sex-dependent differences and sex hormones action. Here we review and discuss evidence provided by clinical and animal studies in the last two decades showing gender (in humans) and sex (in animals) differences in selected psychiatric disorders, namely eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder), schizophrenia, mood disorders (anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder) and neurodevelopmental disorders (autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).
Gender-specific approach in psychiatric diseases: because sex matters
January 22, 2021
The NCATS National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) maintains one of the largest collections of clinical data related to COVID-19 symptoms and patient outcomes in the United States. Having access to a centralized enclave of this magnitude allows research teams to study, probe and answer clinically important questions about COVID-19 that they could not have answered previously. More than 475,000 COVID-19-positive patients and more than 2.9 billion rows of data are included in this enclave.
January 22, 2021
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities will host the next Health Disparities Research Institute (HDRI) virtually in August. The application deadline is March 8. The HDRI aims to support the research career development of promising early-career minority health/health disparities research scientists, and stimulate research in the disciplines supported by health disparities science.
January 22, 2021
Just 5 years ago today, on January 25—a day Congress later declared Women’s Health Research Day—the National Institutes of Health made history. It enacted its pioneering Policy on Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV). This policy innovation was developed in response to increasing evidence of important sex differences and the continued focus on male animals in preclinical research. It was and still is part of a growing international movement to integrate the study of sex into the research process.
As the Study of Sex and Gender Expands, ORWH Expands Its Online Educational Courses
January 22, 2021
When the global pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus made its debut in late 2019, NIAID’s Dr. Helen Su was studying inborn errors of immunity in patients with viral infections, mostly rhinoviruses, which cause colds, and influenza. Why, she wondered, was there such variability of outcomes in people infected with the same virus? In a remarkable example of the NIH Intramural Research Program’s nimbleness, she and her colleagues quickly pivoted to studies of SARS-CoV-2 when it became apparent that Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, was spreading fast and becoming, in at least a small portion of patients, life-threatening. By now, most people know the risk factors for Covid infection: advanced age, obesity, pre-existing cardiovascular and pulmonary issues, “and, I’m sorry to say,” continued Su, “being male.”
January 22, 2021
Evidence increasingly indicates that male sex is a risk factor for more severe disease and death from COVID-19. Male bias in COVID-19 mortality is observed in nearly all countries with available sex-disaggregated data, and the risk of death in males is ?1.7 times higher than in females. Aging is strongly associated with higher risk of death in both sexes, but at all ages above 30 years, males have a significantly higher mortality risk, rendering older males the most vulnerable group. Sex differences are intertwined with differences in gender roles socially and with behavioral factors, which also influence COVID-19 incidence and outcomes. However, there are also possible biological mechanisms of male sex bias that affect the severity of COVID-19, particularly with respect to immune responses.
