Testing Should Include More Women

Alyson McGregor (MED’98,’03) presented Sargent’s 2017 Meredith E. Drench Lecture.

Ambien may give you a good night’s sleep—but for some women, it was fatal. The insomnia drug, which used to be exclusively tested on men, remains in a woman’s bloodstream longer than in a man’s. As a result, many women experienced drowsiness the morning after taking Ambien, which led to several car accidents. Other drugs, too, put women at a higher risk than men, but pharmaceutical testing is still primarily geared toward men. Alyson McGregor (MED’98,’03) is trying to change that.

In Sargent’s 2017 Meredith E. Drench Lecture, “How the Evolution of Sex and Gender-based Research Impacts the Practice of Medicine,” McGregor explained why pharmaceutical testing should be broadened to include women, as well as transgender men and women. It would be “a cognitive transformation,” McGregor said in her lecture. “Having to change the way that you design and analyze your research, and practice medicine, is challenging.”

As a first step in that direction, “consider research, clinical care, and education,” McGregor said. “All of these things have to happen simultaneously.”

McGregor is an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the cofounder and director for the Division of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine at Brown University’s Department of Emergency Medicine. She is also a cofounder and vice chair for the national organization Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative.

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