This lack of research partly explains why women are much more likely to experience medication side effects-some of them deadly. Over the past two decades, there have been increasing efforts to include people with ovarian and uterine disease in clinical research. But we still have a long way to go.

Women are also often subjected to medical counseling intended to protect a potential fetus, whether they are pregnant or not. Official guidelines on how much mercury-containing fish is safe to eat may be different for “women of childbearing age.” according to the United States Environmental Protection AgencyFor example. And in 2021, the World Health Organization used the same language to describe who policies should focus on. reduce alcohol consumption.

The take-home message is that women should be the ones thinking about fetal health, Cattapan says. Not the industries producing these chemicals or the agencies that regulate them. Not even men who contribute to a pregnancy. Just women who have a chance of getting pregnant, whether they want to or not. “This places the responsibility for the health of future generations on women’s shoulders,” she says.

Another problem is the language itself. The term “women of childbearing age” generally includes women aged 15 to 44. Women at one end of this spectrum will have very different bodies and a very different set of health risks than those at the other end. And the term doesn’t take into account people who might get pregnant but don’t necessarily identify as women.

In other cases, it’s too broad. In the context of the Zika virus, for example, not all women aged 15 to 44 should have considered taking precautions. The travel advice did not apply to people who had hysterectomies or who had not had sex with men, for example, Cattapan says. “Precision matters here,” she says.

More nuanced health advice would be helpful in cases like these. The guidelines often seem to be written for people who are considered stupid, she adds. “I don’t think that has to be the case.”

Another thing

On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump said that he will appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The news wasn’t entirely a surprise, given that Trump had said at a campaign rally that he would let Kennedy “ranting” about health, “food” and “medication”.

The role would give Kennedy some control over several agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates drugs in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which coordinates public health guidance and programs.