Gender medicine in everyday clinical practice – why women and men need different treatment

For a long time, men were considered the medical norm – the standard patient, both in medical treatment methods and in drug trials. Women, on the other hand, were seen only as “lighter men.” With fatal consequences, because women become ill in different ways to men.

For some years now, gender has been taken into account in disease symptoms, medication, and therapies. Gender medicine is the name given to gender-specific treatment, which aims to optimize medical care for both sexes. But how does this distinction work in everyday clinical practice?

We accompanied Nora Göbel, Senior Consultant for Cardiovascular Surgery at the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart, on her day-to-day clinical work. She explains why a different perspective on men and women is important in cardiology, for example. And she makes it clear that a lot still needs to happen in order to achieve truly gender-sensitive treatment of patients. Marion Baschin, Director of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Bosch Health Campus, analyzes how gender medicine has developed. 

We accompanied Nora Göbel, Senior Consultant for Cardiovascular Surgery at the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart, on her day-to-day clinical work. She explains why a different perspective on men and women is important in cardiology, for example. And she makes it clear that a lot still needs to happen in order to achieve truly gender-sensitive treatment of patients. Marion Baschin, Director of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Bosch Health Campus, analyzes how gender medicine has developed.