Sex and Drugs and the Immune System

I spent a goodly part of my early research career intrigued by the fact that sex steroids appear to influence the body's production of antibodies. I then went on to rail about the fact, that the vast majority of drugs were developed, using only male laboratory rodents. The 'logic' behind this strategy, was that males were less variable than females. Males didn't have profound reproductive cycles. I recently caught part of a radio programme, pointing out that female humans were more likely than males to experience Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) (https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_myalgic_encephalomyelitis_and_chronic_fatigue_syndrome). ME, also known as 'chronic fatigue syndrome', is a lasting response to a viral infection. ME is 3-4 times more common in women than in men. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was initially largely dismissed as a psychosomatic illness. The condition is now, however, accepted to be a disorder of the immune system, impacted on by sex steroids. Other 'chronic inflammatory' diseases, like Long Covid (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8045422/) and Multiple Sclerosis (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3707353/) are also much more common in women. MS is temporarily improved by pregnancy, again suggesting a role for sex steroids in its etiology. We really do have to recognize that a) most chronic inflammatory diseases are more prevalent in women than men and b) drug treatments for these conditions may differ in the genders.