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What is sex? What is gender? What is sexual identity? Most importantly, what gender medicine is and why we need it. Antonella Viola’s new book tries to answer these questions Sex (almost) everything. Evolution of diversity and medicine of gebornre (Feltrinelli). In a clear, informative way, accessible to all, as in her style, both when she writes, when she lectures or explains on TV, Professor Viola, immunologist and scientific director of the Citt della Speranza Pediatric Research Institute, guides in a journey through stereotypes, science, biology and physiology. And she clarifies that the revolution, even scientific, can start precisely with gender medicine. The female body has been little studied, little considered and, as a consequence, poorly cared for – underlines Antonella Viola in the introduction -. That in this area a revolution is urgent emerges with great clarity by looking at some data on medicine, which for centuries has been a medicine of white males for white males. Continuing not to see this very serious imbalance means giving up the treatment.
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She writes that the biological differences between males and females have been ignored and that gender difference has been instrumentally used to create a binary world. Does this mean that boys and girls are not being treated in the right way?
Today the problem is to use gender analysis in science. If I don’t distinguish the results by gender, I lose very important things or I don’t see some problems. In medicine there are many differences, from the response to pain, to the effects of drugs. We are healing different bodies with a medicine created to cure only males. Until 1993, women were not even included in any clinical drug trials.
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What is gender medicine?
a just medicine, finally attentive to the physiological differences linked to sex, but also to the consequences that gender inequalities have on health. Not only does medicine need to be revolutionized through the inclusion of gender analyzes: all science and technology need to be rethought in this direction. The increase in temperature that the planet is undergoing has, in some animals, different effects depending on the sex. Disregarding these variables could quickly lead to the extinction of some species. Likewise, it will be necessary to rethink the impact of technology and innovation on gender stereotypes. The crux lies in the awareness of the problem and in changing the rules of experimentation.
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Hasn’t there been a gender-friendly experimentation for vaccines as well?
Let’s look at the example of vaccines for Covid, where it was clear that the gender difference had a huge impact. In Italy alone, 71% of adverse reactions concerned women. In the experimentation on the research concerning Covid there was a crazy gender discrimination: in the world only 4% of the studies had analyzed the variables of sex and gender. This means that the differences have not been analyzed, other than personalized medicine. Talking about medicine that deals with differences is important to give the best treatment to everyone: even animal experimentation done on male animals.
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How ingrained are stereotypes in medicine and science?
Just ask which organ that works differently in men and women and almost all of them will answer the brain. But not true. Neuroscience studies show that there is no difference in the way men’s and women’s brains work. What makes the difference are the experiences we have since childhood, individual development, the cultural stereotypes in which we are immersed. On the other hand, there are organs in the human body that really work differently, for example the heart. But let’s also think about some pathologies, such as depression, considered a female problem, instead it is men who commit suicide, in the majority.
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Are study courses in universities moving towards gender medicine?
Padua was the first city in Italy to establish a chair of gender medicine, with Professor Giovannella Baggio, a true pioneer. Something is slowly changing in universities, but a specific scientific path is needed for real cultural change. We need to educate researchers and doctors, teach science and medicine in a new, comprehensive and inclusive way, so that the mistakes of the past never repeat themselves.
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In the book he also analyzes what sex and what sexual orientation is, between biology, epigenetics and transformations.
It’s important to ask yourself the right questions. Why does sex exist? And understand that sexual orientation is biologically determined. everything according to nature, you do not choose, but yes. I also deal with the very delicate issue of intersexuality, not fitting perfectly into the male or female binary pattern and the excessive medicalization that intersex children often encounter. We need to be able to understand that intersex exists and embrace it.
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Speaking of transformations, there is the lesson of the clownfish.
In nature, the clownfish lives protected inside an anemone, where predators cannot attack it. In the colonies the fish dominates the female, followed by a breeding male and many immature males. But when the female dies, the male fish changes sex, becomes a female, and mates with one of the other males. sequential hermaphroditism. Then there are some male snakes that take on the appearance of females in order not to be attacked or to receive heat from the bodies of other males. In short, the “lesson” that there are two sexes but also many nuances.
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What is gendered innovation?
In 2005, Londa Schiebinger, Professor of History of Science at Stanford, coined the term “gendered innovation” for her research project on the impact of sex and gender in research and innovation. The project also led the European Commission to create a specific working group. Considering sex and gender fundamental in research and innovation, we have also seen it in innovative therapies linked to the treatment of tumors that exploit the immune system. The immune responses of men and women are very different, influenced by both genetics and hormonal status, this must lead to an immediate and better analysis of the role of gender in the efficacy of therapies.
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March 20, 2022 (change March 20, 2022 | 09:06)
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