nicotine patches work better in men than women

Just heard this on NPR http://krwg.org/post/nih-scientists-must-include-female-animals-testing

the broader topic is that scientific testing should be done on both genders

On the importance of researching drug effects on females:

“There really can be big differences, and we’ve seen that, for example, with aspirin, which helps to prevent heart attacks in men, but is helpful for stroke prevention in women. And we see that in nicotine patches, for example, that work much more effectively in men than women. So we do know there are differences. Despite that, our pre-clinical research, that research that tests things before they go into the clinic, we just see many, many more male animals than female animals being used.”

@AZYooper - 2 things: 1) There is actually a MUCH bigger gender bias in animal studies than in human studies. I dont recall ever using female mice in my experiments on colitis. 2) It has nothing to do with which gender we prefer, it has to do with the complexity of the female body. Females have many more hormones and complex cycles (think menstrual cycle) that can "clutter" the results and make interpreting the results much more difficult. Using males just makes sense. And from the animal testing perspective thats perfectly fine. HOWEVER, we DO need to work on getting rid of the gender bias in human trials, because that can and has caused many issues in the past