Are asthma drugs tested on women, as well as men ?

[Anniecath]

Another query here. Following rather alarming disclosures recently about many drugs only being tested on men (it being cheaper) how can a patient find out if the drugs being prescribed are appropiate for age/ gender of the patient ?

[Poobah]

I had a similar discussion with my GP about a non-asthma medication as I felt the dose was wrong for me. I asked if weight and gender were taken into account when they prescribe and I was told that in most cases they don't. However, with blood tests they are able to monitor the effects of some meds and tweak the dose accordingly.

So I have regular blood tests to monitor non-asthma diseases and to regulate my medication, but for my asthma it's working with my asthma nurse to establish the most effective meds and the most suitable doseage that controls my asthma symptoms.

Even with my blood pressure meds, I've had to work with the BP nurse and my GP in order to monitor progress and tweak doses and change meds due to side effects. I've now embarked on an alternative eating pattern in order to help, which is working very well (supervised by the surgery health coach).

Yes, there's gender bias in some clinical trials, but working with our primary health care professionals is paramount in finding the right treatment that suits us as an individual and monitoring progress through follow up appointments.

[Bevvy]

With most medications it is simply the case of trialling amounts with the patient to find out correct dosage. Sometimes the whole medication needs to be changed when not working or suitable for a person. In other meds it is about tweaking the amounts for the individual patient.The testing done with new drugs is more about ensuring they have no dire side affects when used by humans. Rather than about tweaking for male/female or age of patient.

[Anniecath in reply to Bevvy]

And men and women are so different phisically.

[Bevvy in reply to Anniecath]

Yes but that isn’t what is being tested for in most medical trials. It is only when a medication is specifically for women that it’s important to test on women. I genuinely believe you are worrying unnecessarily.