Women with type 2 diabetes suffer more complications than men, a new US study found.
The physicians extracted accumulated knowledge in the diabetic field on sex differences by an extensive literature search.
Women with diabetes have higher risk in developing heart diseases. Yet they did not receive appropriate treatments.
The study gives recommendations for sex-specific care in the journal Gender Medicine.
Before menopause, women might be protected from having diabetes. However, the disease seems to hit harder on them than on men, such as:
- Higher risk of death in heart diseases
- Poorer recovery after an heart attack
- Difficulties in keeping blood glucose level
- More severe type of abnormal cholesterol level
Searching all scientific articles published in the last decade by Google Scholar and MEDLINE, researchers found very few studies considered differences between men and women.
“Often, such studies showed a highly significant benefit to patients and did not report harm to women, but the authors did not analyze the data in terms of sex,” said the authors.
Researchers recommend that disease management should consider sex-specific differences, thereby saving money and lives.
External Links
> Gender Medicine
> Google Scholar
> MEDLINE
