WHY THE PROBLEM BEGINS AT MEDICAL SCHOOL

CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, author of Invisible Women (£16.99; Chatto & Windus) believes the problem begins at medical school.

“Historically it’s been assumed there weren’t fundamental differences between male and female bodies other than size and reproductive function,” she says. “Medical education focused on a male ‘norm’ with everything else designated ‘atypical’ or even ‘abnormal’.

“In medical text books, the male body is, more often than not, human body. When women are mentioned, they are presented as if they are a variation on standard humanity. Students learn about anatomy – and female anatomy. There are still vast medical gender data gaps to be filled, but the last 20 years have proven that women are not just smaller men: male and female bodies differ from the mechanical workings of the heart through to lung capacity and down to cellular level, e.g. how cells die following a stroke.

“Doctors need to be taught how medication will interact with female bodies, how their diseases progress, how symptoms differ. Women are just as much a standard version of humanity as men, so that their symptoms are called ‘atypical’ when they are very typical for women is outrageous.”