Medical trials have a long history of excluding women.
As late as 1977, women who were of childbearing age, took contraceptives, were single, or were married to men who had vasectomies were excluded from medical trials. Researchers believed that including women would skew results because of their hormonal cycle. This had severe consequences. For example, the drug thalidomide was widely prescribed to pregnant women experiencing morning sickness in the 1950s and early 1960s. Pregnant women who took it gave birth to babies with severe limb deformities or miscarried.
It wasn't until 1987 that the NIH created a policy requiring women and minorities to be included in research studies and put that in its guide for grants and contracts.
Still, the problem persists. Ambien, the most popular sleeping drug, was created in 1992. Medical trials noted that its absorption rate was different in men and women. Yet nothing was done about those findings until further research showed that women were waking up with levels of the drug still in their system. It took until 2014 for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to cut the recommended dose for women in half. To this day, Ambien is the only drug that the FDA specifies a different dosage for men and women. It isn't the only one that should.
