Gender medicine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gender medicine (international specialist term gender medicine, also gender-specific medicine or gender-specific medicine ) describes human medicine with special attention to the biological differences between men and women . It implies gender-specific research and treatment of diseases.

Historical aspects

Gender medicine was developed in the 1990s and is part of personalized medicine . One of the leading pioneers is the American cardiologist and medical scientist Marianne Legato , who discovered differences in heart disease in women compared to men in the 1980s. In addition to her research, she opened up the topic to a broad public for the first time with her book Evas Rippe . She was also founding editor of Gender Medicine magazine .

In the 1980s, the World Health Organization (WHO) began to study the differences between women and men in medicine on the basis of women's health research. In 2001 it issued a recommendation to develop and implement local strategies for gender-specific health care in the health sector.

In Germany, the cardiologist Vera Regitz-Zagrosek founded gender research in medicine at the Charité in Berlin. In 2011 she edited a textbook together with Sabine Oertelt-Prigione under the title Sex and Gender Aspects in Clinical Medicine .

In Austria there are two medical universities own chairs of gender medicine: The first chair was 2010 Alexandra Kautzky-Willer at the Medical University of Vienna , the second in 2014 Margarethe Hochleitner at the Medical University of Innsbruck . In Austria, it has also been possible to acquire a Master of Science (Gender Medicine) since 2010.

object

It says in the gender medicine, as is apparent from its name, the preoccupation with the assigned by the social environment and gender roles gender, according to the English Gender called, the focus of interest. It also deals with questions of biological sex , which is called sex in English. For specific diseases of the female reproductive tract, however, there is an independent traditional subject of gynecology or gynecology.

In general, it is assumed that biological and social sex are not diametrically opposed, but that there is a seamless continuum between the two areas, in the following sequence:

  1. genetic or nuclear sex (after having sex chromosomes )
  2. gonadal sex (after the development of the gonads )
  3. genital sex (according to the physical external sex characteristics )
  4. psychic gender (sexual self-identification)
  5. social gender (according to the external social role assignment)

In many cases , an assignment to gender or sex would be artificial. Interdisciplinary research is also important for gender medicine . Important intersections are made to a field of Public Health (Public Health).

Gender medicine today

In addition to social and psychological differences, gender medicine is dedicated to the symptoms and characteristics of diseases in women and men that are based on different genetic and biological conditions. For example, it has long been known that women have stronger inflammatory reactions than men due to a stronger immune response . This is also associated with autoimmune diseases , of which men are in turn less affected in percentage terms. Women are registered or treated more often than men, for example for mental illnesses such as depression , and men more often for addictions , especially alcohol dependence .

Gender medicine was of particular importance in connection with investigations into heart disease in women. It was found that female patients are often diagnosed too late or incorrectly, also due to other symptoms: There were significant differences in the number of cardiac catheters placed in women and men, as well as in the time that elapsed until admission to the intensive care unit . For men, psychological aspects have so far been neglected, for example in postoperative care for prostate cancer, compared to breast cancer in women. Differences in health awareness, differences in the effectiveness of drugs (most drugs are usually tested on young men) or in addictive behavior are also focal points of gender medicine.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Gender Medicine  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Press release from the Medical University of Vienna : Univ. Prof.in Dr Alexandra Kautzky-Willer receives the first professorship for gender medicine in Austria. In: MedUniWien.ac.at. January 11, 2010, accessed October 26, 2019.
  2. Barbara Hoffmann: Innsbruck Medical University appoints a university professor for gender medicine. In: i-med.ac.at. Innsbruck Medical University , March 7, 2014, accessed October 26, 2019 .
  3. Institute website : Welcome to Austria's first Gender Medicine course! In: meduniwien.ac.at. Medical University of Vienna , 2019, accessed on October 26, 2019 .
  4. Anita Rieder , Brigitte Lohff: Gender Medicine: Gender-Specific Aspects for Clinical Practice. 2nd Edition. Springer, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-211-68290-6 , p. 2.