Sex Bias in Research

Much research is done using only male animals, and male subjects are overwhelmingly the subjects in human clinical trials. If findings in animal studies are to lead to results that are applicable to women patients as well as men, disease models that are developed and validated with only male animals are unlikely to produce optimal results. To take just one example, the FDA had to reduce the dose of Ambien for women because it discovered, after a number of traffic accidents following use of the drug, women metabolize the drug more slowly than men, and 80% of adverse events reported after drug approval were reactions reported by women.
However, shifting from a practice of using all-male animal studies for the sake of scientific simplicity may introduce other complications for researchers, animal care programs, and IACUCs, including husbandry of mixed-sex animal populations, rethinking "unnecessary duplication" in the light of the shortcomings of past single-sex research studies, identifying circumstances where mixed-sex studies are not scientifically appropriate, and negotiating the role of the IACUC in helping researchers shift to appropriate sex balance in their research studies.
This recording is of the 2020 IACUC Conference Panel: Sex Bias in Research
Moderator: Tracy A. Thompson, DVM
Panelists: Rebecca M. Shansky, PhD; Natalie C. Tronson, PhD; Melina Kibbe, MD
IACUC20 Session Recording package available in the PRIM&R Knowledge Center: www.pathlms.com/primr/courses...