The Gender Health Gap:
Understanding Differences, Improving Care

University of Regensburg (H25) – 24.09.2026

[ If you would like to participate in the symposium either online or in person, please register briefly per e-mail at: carina.ehrnsperger(at)ur.de ]

Health and illness do not affect men and women in the same way. A growing body of research demonstrates that women and men differ in symptom presentation, in their risk factors for certain diseases, and in how they respond to treatments and medication. For decades, however, the male body functioned as the standard in biomedical research. As a result, findings derived predominantly from male participants were often generalized to women without sufficient critical evaluation. This has contributed to significant gaps in knowledge, including the underrecognition of sex-specific symptoms and differences in treatment efficacy. The consequences of overlooking such differences are far-reaching for all patients: diseases may be misdiagnosed or diagnosed too late, and therapies may not be adequately tailored to sex-specific needs.

Given these implications, the significance of gender medicine has become increasingly clear. As an evidence-based field, it examines both biological differences between the sexes and the wider impact of sex and gender on health, disease, research, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Building on this foundation, the symposium engages with the questions of how persistent gender health gaps can be systematically reduced. It draws on current empirical findings and focuses on key areas such as:

• Sex and gender differences in diseases across disciplines, such as cardiology, nephrology, gastroenterology and hepatology
• Sex- and gender-specific pharmacology
• Sex- and gender-sensitive approaches to preventive medicine

At the same time, the symposium highlights a further gap in health research: The limited dialogue between medical research and other academic fields concerned with health and the (female) body. Health is not shaped by medical practice alone. It is also influenced by psychological, social, and cultural factors, as well as by technological and media environments. To account for these dimensions, the symposium adopts an explicitly interdisciplinary approach and additionally presents empirical research from psychology, sociology, and media studies, particularly in the field of women’s health.

In this context, particular attention is paid to:

• The influence of technology on patients and medical practice, including developments in artificial intelligence and FemTech
• The impact of language, discourse, and media in shaping knowledge about women’s health and its translation into practice, for instance in health communication

By connecting medical research with perspectives from the social sciences and humanities, the symposium aims to foster a more comprehensive understanding of sex and gender in health. Ultimately, it seeks to identify ways of reducing the gender health gap and contributing to more effective and personalized healthcare for all patients.