PHILADELPHIA—Acknowledging the complexities of medical care for transgender (trans) and nonbinary or gender-diverse patients and emphasizing the urgency of doing it right, two experts offered guideposts to clinicians in an ACR Convergence 2022 session titled Dignity and Respect: How to Welcome and Care for Gender Diverse Patients in Your Practice, with advice on providing clinical…
The Glass Ceiling in Academic Rheumatology
Gender plays a role in career advancement among academic rheumatologists in the U.S., according to a new study by Jorge et al.
Gender Disparity in Invited Commentary Authorship
A case-control study found only 23% of invited commentaries for peer-reviewed medical journals had women as their corresponding authors. The study also revealed women are 21% less likely to write such commentaries as men with similar expertise and author seniority…
Male Researchers Call Their Work ‘Novel’ More Often Than Women
(Reuters Health)—Male scientists are more likely than their female counterparts to use superlatives, such as first or novel, to describe their work, a new study suggests, and this disparity might contribute to other professional gender gaps, the authors say. The study team analyzed the language used in more than 6 million papers in peer-reviewed medical…
Men, Women & Medical Differences in Axial Spondyloarthropathy
Historically, ankylosing spondylitis was considered mainly a male disease. But it has become evident this predominance is not as great as previously believed. Here we discuss recent developments in the area, including potential differences between the sexes in symptom and disease burden, immunological and genetic background, diagnostic delay, treatment response and ongoing research questions. Medical…
Medical Professionals Link the Word ‘Career’ with Men
(Reuters Health)—Researchers who examined implicit and explicit gender biases in the U.S. medical community found professionals of both genders are more likely to associate the word career with men and the word family with women. And U.S. surgeons broadly see surgery as a man’s career and family medicine as a woman’s field, the researchers also…
Annual Meeting Speakers Review Studies Ranging from Opioids to Fibroblasts
CHICAGO—Findings on opioid efficacy, serum urate in osteoarthritis and arthrocentesis headlined the top research of the year discussed in the first half of a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. The second half covered basic science findings, including summaries of new insights into the gender bias in autoimmune diseases, platelet microparticles in scleroderma and…
Study Reveals Lupus Is a Leading Cause of Death in U.S. Women
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a leading cause of death among young women, according to an August 2018 study in Arthritis & Rheumatology.1 To help determine where SLE ranks among causes of death, Eric Y. Yen, MD, and Ram Raj Singh, MD, conducted a population-based study using nationwide mortality counts for all female residents of…
Women Internists Make 80 Cents for Every Dollar Earned by Men
(Reuters Health)—In internal medicine, women earn less than men even when they’re in the same specialty and working the same hours in similar types of medical practices, a U.S. study suggests. Overall, half of male internists have annual salaries of at least $250,000, compared with $200,000 for female internists, the analysis of survey data from…
When & How to Talk to Your Patients About Their Gender & Sex
How do you ask a new patient about sex and gender—or know which pronoun to use? Keep the conversation straightforward and respectful to put everyone at ease, says Morgan Orndorff, a transgender man who works as an administrator at a major academic medical center. “Everyone is a little different in terms of their sensitivity level”…