Women with the same medical condition as men are less likely to be offered treatment such as surgery, a stent or a strong painkiller, research has found.
A review of global research found that for several health problems, including cardiovascular conditions, kidney disease and Parkinson’s, women were less likely to receive the same treatment as men, revealing the extent to which women have significantly unequal care.
Researchers at the University of St Andrews analysed 38 studies and found that in 33 of them women were less likely to be offered active treatment. Women with myocardial infarction, heart failure or an irregular heart beat were more likely to be given medication, whereas men were more likely to receive a coronary bypass, stent or other surgical treatment. Women were also less likely to be prescribed statins, according to the analysis, which was published in the journal Plos One.
Men with Parkinson’s were more likely to be referred for deep brain stimulation, while those with liver failure were more likely to receive a transplant than women. Female kidney patients requiring dialysis were less likely to be given permanent access and had to spend longer using a catheter. And women were also less likely to be given opioids for pain management.
For stroke and diabetes, however, there was no significant difference between the sexes in treatment. And women were more likely to be treated for dementia.
The findings come amid growing concern about the gender health gap. In March, the then health secretary, Wes Streeting, said women were being let down by “medical misogyny”. The previous Conservative government appointed Lesley Regan as England’s first women’s health ambassador, to help tackle the gender gap.
The analysis concluded the discrepancy was not a result of the need for different clinical approaches to women’s health. It found that none of the studies identified any guideline recommending different treatment by sex, raising the question of whether unequal care was a factor.
Dr Andrew O’Malley, who co-led the study, said: “For clinicians, the findings are a prompt to check whether treatment is being offered on clinical grounds rather than assumption.”
He said studies showed doctors more often attributed women’s symptoms to anxiety and made more diagnostic errors with female patients, even when test results were positive.
Dr Miriam Veenhuizen, an honorary lecturer in the School of Medicine at St Andrews, said: “While the direction of the findings was not a surprise, the consistency was. The same pattern appeared in cardiology, surgery, transplant medicine and emergency care, and it survived statistical adjustment in most studies.”
