Indeed, Sex Matters! Gender Matters!
SEX refers to biological differences (e.g., anatomy; genetic), while GENDER describes characteristics imposed by societal or cultural norms and expectations
When most practitioners and patients think of Women’s Health, the obvious considerations focus on reproductive organs and hormones. But Women’s Health encompasses much more — after all, every cell has a sex.
More over, optimal medical care can only be achieved once we have a universal understanding that sex and gender competency is integral to an evidence-based medical curriculum. Medical institutions must commit to the delivery of medical graduates who approach care with sex and gender sensitivity. Women‘s health will benefit when clinicians recognize and apply a sex and gender perspective in their delivery of medical care. This urgent call to action has been repeated over the years. Among the champions of sex and gender integration into medical care, are:
- Mary Lou Pardue, PhD, chair of the IOM Committee on Understanding the Biology of Sex Differences, 2010, stated, “Sex does matter. it matters in ways that we did not expect. Undoubtedly, it also matters in ways that we have not yet begun to imagine.“
- In 2000, Glenda D Donaghue, MD. Women’s Health: A Catalyst for Reform of Medical Education, observed that “It is critical that leaders who can influence curricular reform take ownership of the process of introducing women’s health information into our nation’s medical education.”