Some history and philosophy of science about into why this matters- traditionally medical and biological research has studied male animals much more than females. To this day there is still a skew 1 www.thetransmitter.org/policy/exclu... - ThreadSky

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cailinmeister.bsky.social • 2 days ago

Some history and philosophy of science about into why this matters- traditionally medical and biological research has studied male animals much more than females. To this day there is still a skew 1

https://www.thetransmitter.org/policy/exclusive-nih-appears-to-archive-policy-requiring-female-animals-in-studies/

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cailinmeister.bsky.social•2 days ago

The traditional justification is that male animals do not have variable hormones the way females do. Those pesky hormones might mess things up. But many have pointed out this reflects patriarchal assumptions about male bodies being the normal ones 2

cailinmeister.bsky.social•2 days ago

Others have pointed out male hormones also vary and cycle. One way or another, this skew has meant that medicine is often more tailored to males. And our basic biological understandings of bodies also are more based in males 3

cailinmeister.bsky.social•2 days ago

For instance the full form of the clitoris wasn’t discovered and publicized untill around 2000!!! 4
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-clitoris-uncovered-an-intimate-history/

cailinmeister.bsky.social•2 days ago

But more directly important is probably the impact on female health. Medicines are optimized for males and often don’t work as well on females, or have unsurprising effects 5
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/women-are-overmedicated-because-drug-dosage-trials-are-done-men-study-finds

cailinmeister.bsky.social•2 days ago

Eventually various organizations, including finally NIH have put policies in place to require testing on females- animals and humans. There are still gaps, but they have been closing in part bc of policies like the one in question. It is a gut punch to see it threatened 6

cailinmeister.bsky.social•2 days ago

#philsci

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