Women are simultaneously given more drugs then men and undertreated,
according to a study Medco and the Society of Women's Health Research.
The report found that these seemingly contradictory trends are part of an overall gap in understanding how the health of women and men differs from the point of physician interaction through compliance.
“I think physicians need to know this and need to know there may be unconscious biases against managing women the same as managing men, or there might be a lack of knowledge about the gender differences in management,” Dr. Chris Carter, vice president of scientific affairs at the Society for Women's Health Research, told MM&M.
Among the study's findings, based on 30 million prescription records from January through December 2010: doctors prescribed cholesterol-lowering medications for 59% of women compared with 71.5% of men, and beta-blockers were only prescribed for 63% of female heart attack patients, compared with 69% of men.