May 12, 2022
Research is uncovering ways in which sex as a biological variable affects health. The social environment’s effect on our biology also is increasingly acknowledged, along with data indicating that these effects vary by gender. Thus, both biological sex and gendered experience can play a role in the physiological mechanisms of disease. A newly published paper in the journal Cell asserts that despite the challenges in navigating the paradigm shift required to study the effects of sex and gender as well as the biological and social determinants of health, the future of science is to study how these factors intersect.