Male bias in medical trials risks women’s lives. But at least the data gap is finally being addressed | Caroline Criado Perez

The MHRA has identified a notable imbalance’ in trials conducted between 2019 and 2023 .

There were nearly twice as many all-male trials as all-female trials.

Failure to adequately represent women in clinical trials is a longstanding and global problem.

The inclusion of both sexes in a trial by no means guarantees that researchers will consider any differences between the sexes.

We know far less about female-specific risk factors for developing heart disease.

Risk-prediction models are still based on predominantly male data.

But heart-disease trials are not generally exclusively male; it’s just the representation of women in them remains “dismally low”.