Shockingly, the confusion between women and men flagged by Dr Stacy Sims is still with us — because so much traditional research into human health has been founded on work looking at men or animals. The findings and conclusions don’t necessarily apply to women.

“It wasn’t until 1993 that it became mandatory in the US for government-funded health research to include evidence on women,” explains Dr Milli Raizada, an NHS doctor now working in private practice and a senior clinical lecturer at Lancaster.

“There’s very limited research on women’s hormones and their implications for health (cardiac, immune, bone, metabolism etc). And that’s a serious omission in the context of a world struggling to deal with the snowballing of chronic health conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Limitations in terminology used within studies, methodological flaws and also the need to do long term longitudinal trial (to capture any intra individual variability) is needed.”

“We need to have a much better understanding of women’s physiology and metabolism and the impact of hormones in relation to where women are at different stages of their lives and menstrual cycle, the perimenopause and menopause, and how the resulting issues for health can best be managed. So, for example, many women in their 40s and 50s may experience ‘frozen shoulder’ and are prescribed painkilling drugs. But better options could potentially be through changes to lifestyle and hormone replacement, if appropriate.

“With the pressures on NHS and the cost of private care, it’s so important that more people are able to take ownership of their health, think about the role of their behaviours and the six pillars of ‘lifestyle medicine’: healthy eating, exercise, sleep, stress management, good social connections and avoiding toxic substances like alcohol.”

With this in mind, Milli has produced a book, Happy Hormones, Happy You, aiming to share practical self-help advice to a wider audience.

“At this stage in women’s health research, we need as much international input and collaboration as possible. Multi-centre trials will be important for broadening and strengthening the evidence base and yielding higher power data, creating a new foundation for improved advice and treatments for women around the world.”

Find Dr Milli on Instagram @drmilli

This article was initially featured in issue five of Lancaster University's Global Research Newsletter.

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