The quest to show that biological sex matters in the immune system

A handful of immunologists are pushing the field to take attributes such as sex chromosomes, sex hormones, and reproductive tissues into account.

Ignoring such differences prior to a drug’s approval can increase the risk of harmful, and potentially even life-threatening, effects. That is assuming those differences are studied in the first place; historically, the vast majority of clinical trials enrolled primarily men. Women often bore the worst of the side effects. Between 1997 and 2001, eight out of 10 drugs that the FDA pulled from the market were found after approval to pose greater health risks in women. “The drugs that came on the market were really for men,” says Rosemary Morgan, one of Klein’s colleagues at Hopkins.

Klein’s work suggests that these biological sex differences affect how we respond to viruses. Women are known to report more adverse events after vaccines, and this has long been thought to be due to gender rather than sex—for example, maybe men are reluctant to report such events, or women are more likely to report perceptions of pain. But by the late 2000s, Klein and others showed that in addition to any such differences, females need far less vaccine to mount the same antibody response as males.

These findings were “really groundbreaking,” Benn says. “That seems quite clear from the research that Sabra has done, and others, that we need perhaps to have sex-differential vaccination programs.”

Giving women a lower dose of the flu vaccine, which could be equally effective while reducing side effects, could potentially reduce vaccine hesitancy. Klein has advocated for such a policy in numerous lectures, interviews, and scientific articles, as well as in a 2009 New York Times op-ed titled “Do Women Need Such Big Flu Shots?” So far, however, the idea has gained little traction.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/08/15/1056908/biological-sex-immune-system/

 

Thank you @Mij for this very interesting article.

At the everyday level we have contradictory beliefs that women are tougher than men when it comes to the flu and colds, but also that "women run to the doctor for every little thing".

It would be a huge accomplishment if science could change some of the belief systems hindering medical and treatment progress.

 

If only we had people, like scientists or something like that, whose job it is to check those things so that other people don't go around talking nonsense like that about things that can be verified but somehow haven't been because reasons.

If only. That would be a really neat ideas. Like some, I don't know, doctors of medicine, or something like it. Like they go to school really long and study about science and other smart stuff, then they use those skills to check things instead of relying on dumb stereotypes invented at a time when the idea of sex equality was more often the basis of a joke than a serious discussion.

Oh, if only. Or we can go with "holistic" and woo and stuff instead. Weird choice if you ask me.

 

Listen to the “Genetic Gender Gap” BBC Radio 4 programme from April 2020, Dr Sharon Moelem was extremely interesting.

https://www.s4me.info/threads/bbc-radio-4-start-the-week-–-the-genetic-gender-gap.14507/