Sex-based discrimination in medicine costs lives | Letters

Readers respond to an article on women being less likely than men to be offered active treatment for the same conditions

As head of pharmacovigilance at a clinical trials technology company, I was not surprised that a review of global research found that women are less likely than men to be offered active treatment for the same conditions (Women with same health conditions as men ‘less likely to be offered active treatment’, 16 September).

This inequality costs lives. A British Heart Foundation-funded study found that women were less likely than men to receive recommended care after a heart attack. Research in 2018 estimated that more than 8,000 women’s deaths may have been prevented over 10 years had they received the same standard of care as men.