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Editorial
When it comes to drugs, sex matters

https://doi.org/10.1136/dtb.2024.000024

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    Women experience a significantly higher burden of ill health compared with men despite living longer and are more likely to have long-term conditions and take medication.1 2 Only a fraction of the differential in health outcomes compared with men can be explained by gynaecological and maternal morbidity.2 Drug absorption, distribution and excretion differ between men and women and such differences can have significant clinical impact, reducing the effectiveness of some drugs in women (eg, aspirin in the secondary prevention of myocardial infarction) and enhancing the effectiveness of others (eg, opioids for pain and beta-blockers in hypertension).3 4 Women also suffer from significantly more adverse drug effects and hospital admissions due to drug complications.5 Despite these …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None declared. Refer to the online supplementary files to view the ICMJE form(s).

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.