The Medical Importance of Sex in Covid-19 Research

The fact that male and female patients often respond differently to medications has been known for decades (for example, the heart drug digoxin, reduces mortality in the male but increases it in female patients). I have also complained, for quite some time, that much of the animal research testing exploring potential drugs is often limited to the male (on the slightly odd grounds that they are less 'variable'). There is now a timely warning that much of the relatively rushed research on medications to treat Covid-19 is not considering the potential impact of sex appropriately (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/25/not-accounting-for-sex-differences-in-covid-research-can-be-deadly). Studies often give the total numbers of males and females used in their investigations but they rarely balance the genders in their individual categories (such as those for different ages). An example of this was seen in attempts to establish whether the long-used antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, could benefit people with a Covid-19 infection. The incidence of dangerous side-effects was much greater in women. As one of the authors emphasised 'women are not just little men'. We really need to establish the efficacies and safety of all treatments in both males and females.