Scientists explained the reasons for the exclusion of women from scientific research

In many of the health, sports, and physical activity studies reviewed by Medical Xpress magazine, women either did not participate at all or were represented significantly less frequently than men. One of the main reasons was considered to be the assumption that the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraception affect physiological parameters too much and make the results less reliable. However, new research shows that in many cases this assumption turned out to be incorrect. Why scientists had to rethink the established approach and how it could change medicine is in the Izvestia article.

Why were women not included in scientific research for a long time

Over the years, the results of studies conducted primarily on men have often been extended to women. This practice existed in various fields of science, from sports physiology to medicine. At the same time, the number of female participants in the studies was often significantly lower than that of men.

According to the publication of The Physiologist Magazine, one of the main reasons was the uncertainty associated with the menstrual cycle and the use of hormonal contraceptives. The researchers assumed that hormonal changes could significantly affect the functioning of muscles, heart, blood vessels and other physiological parameters. Because of this, the experiments were considered too complicated to organize and analyze.

The authors note that such ideas existed not only a few decades ago. Even studies over the past 20 years have often been structured in such a way that women have been included in them only to a limited extent or completely excluded from the sample. As a result, many modern ideas about the effects of physical activity, athletic training, and body function were based primarily on data obtained from men.

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The main assumption that scientists have tested

The turning point came when a research group led by experts in the field of exercise physiology decided to test whether the menstrual cycle really affects the basic physiological parameters as much as previously thought. The results of the work were published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

The researchers measured the state of the cardiovascular system during physical exertion in different phases of the menstrual cycle, and compared women who use and do not use hormonal contraceptives. The analysis included indicators of the functioning of the heart and blood vessels. It turned out that no significant daily differences could be found for the studied parameters. The results cast doubt on one of the main explanations used for many years to justify the lack of women's participation in such studies.

Later, similar conclusions appeared in other works on the physiology of physical activity. In particular, studies have not revealed a significant effect of the phases of the menstrual cycle on adaptation to strength training.

Why is this important not only for sports

According to the authors, the problem concerns not only sports science. When research results are obtained primarily on men, there is a risk of automatically transferring these conclusions to women, although in some cases there may be important differences between them.

The authors of a paper in the journal Current Atherosclerosis Reports cite cardiology as an example. It was only after women began to be more actively included in studies of cardiovascular diseases that scientists found that the symptoms of a heart attack and its consequences can differ markedly between men and women. These findings subsequently helped to improve diagnosis and treatment approaches.

At the same time, the new work also shows the downside of the problem. Some differences that were considered obvious for a long time may be absent in practice. If such assumptions are not tested, science risks simultaneously overestimating the real differences and missing the really important ones. According to the authors, the inclusion of women in the research allows us to get a more accurate idea of which features are really related to gender, and which are equally characteristic of all people.

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What questions do scientists still have to study?

The researchers emphasize that the new job does not mean that there are no differences between men and women. On the contrary, scientists now have to determine in which areas such differences really exist, and where previous ideas turned out to be erroneous.

The authors believe that increasing women's participation in research will help fill in the numerous gaps that have accumulated over the previous decades. This applies not only to young women, but also to different stages of life — from adolescence to menopause. According to the researchers, the revision of old scientific assumptions is a natural part of the development of science. Checking established views allows you to either confirm them or reject them if new data suggests otherwise.

That is why scientists urge researchers from different fields of science to analyze their own methods of work more carefully and verify assumptions that have long been considered obvious. This will allow you to get results that are equally useful for both women and men.