TORONTO (Reuters) - Fifteen years after rules limiting female participation in clinical trials were changed, women are still under-represented in research despite evidence that many conditions such as lung cancer and depression have gender-based differences.
Only 9 percent of the female respondents in a survey of 2,000 American adults released this week for Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day had ever participated in medical research, and 93 percent said their doctor had never mentioned the opportunity to them. One quarter was unaware that healthy individuals could participate in medical research.