Beyond women's health the new discipline of gender-specific medicine

Abstract

At its best, women's health is not something to be developed as an isolated discipline. If instead biologic sex is used as an important variable in research protocols, studying and comparing men and women directly, the data prompt the formulation of questions that never otherwise would be asked. In answering those questions, one can fashion more accurate and complete models not only of human physiology, but also of the pathophysiology of disease.