Australian women are being let down by a lack of consideration for gender and sex in healthcare guidelines, leading to entrenched gender inequities at the highest levels of the health system.
From medical emergencies such as heart attacks and stroke to mental health care, gender and sex bias is leading to poorer health outcomes for women and gender-diverse people, including delayed diagnosis and treatment.
A report by Monash University took a deep dive into Australia's clinical practice guidelines and assessed the standard of sex and gender awareness being reflected in advice given to healthcare practitioners.
Of the 80 clinical practice guidelines reviewed across 27 different areas of practice, 15 per cent made no reference to 'sex' or 'gender'.
More than 40 per cent used the terms sex and gender incorrectly and more than half did not include consideration of gender in clinical practice.
Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney said gender discrimination needed to be tackled at every level of the health system.
"As a former nurse I know just how important clinical guidelines are," she said.
"This report shows us current guidelines are letting Australian women down (and) it’s not good enough."
The report made several recommendations, including introducing a minimum requirement to report where there is a lack of sex or gender-specific evidence.
It also recommended increasing the participation of women and gender diverse people in guideline development panels.
"Compounding the sex and gender-based discrimination we see at the point of care is a deeper bias in health and medical research, where historically the male body has been the focus of investigation," lead author Maggie Kirkman said.
Dr Kirkman said she was optimistic that gender equity in clinical guidelines would be achieved in the future.
"Setting standards for clinical guidelines to address gender inequity has the potential to spark a transformative shift in practice, and mandatorily reporting gaps in sex and gender-related evidence will serve to target and prioritise future research," she said.
"This is an easy game-changer for women and gender-diverse people."
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) said it was working to ensure clinical guidelines reflected best practice for all Australians.
