Women may be getting less treatment than men for the same illness: Study

New Delhi, September 17, 2026: Women with the same medical conditions as men may be less likely to receive some forms of active treatment, including surgery, stents, transplants and strong pain medication, according to a new review of research from the University of St Andrews.The review, published in PLOS One on September 16, examined research comparing the treatment received by male and female patients across different areas of medicine. Researchers initially screened 1,112 published studies and identified 41 that directly examined measurable differences in treatment between men and women.Of the 38 retrospective case series included in the review, 33 reported a significant difference in the treatment received by male and female patients. Among 29 studies that used statistical methods to account for other factors, 25 still found a significant difference.The differences appeared across several medical specialties, including cardiology, surgery, transplant medicine and emergency care.The researchers found examples in which men were more likely to receive interventions such as surgical procedures or advanced treatments, while women with comparable conditions were more likely to receive less invasive management.The review does not conclude that women should automatically receive more aggressive treatment. Instead, it raises a different question: are treatment decisions always being made on the basis of a patient’s clinical need, or can assumptions about sex and gender influence those decisions?

A gap the researchers say needs more attention

The researchers noted that almost none of the studies they examined identified clinical guidelines that recommended different treatment solely because a patient was male or female. 
This means that the differences observed in treatment cannot simply be explained by a formal recommendation that men and women should routinely receive different care.The reasons therefore remain uncertain.The University of St Andrews researchers pointed to several possible explanations, including differences in clinical decision-making and the historical under-representation of women in medical research. They also noted previous evidence suggesting that women’s symptoms can sometimes be attributed to anxiety or other non-physical causes, potentially contributing to diagnostic errors.One example highlighted by the researchers involved advanced treatment for heart failure. They reported that when teams responsible for selecting patients for advanced heart-failure treatment functioned poorly, women were less likely to be selected.The pattern was not found across every condition. The review reported no significant treatment difference in the studies examining stroke and diabetes, while women were more likely to receive treatment in studies concerning dementia.That variation is important because it shows that the findings do not mean women universally receive less medical treatment. Rather, the review points to differences that appear in particular conditions and treatment decisions.

Why the findings matter

Healthcare research has increasingly examined differences between men and women, but much of that work has focused on health professionals rather than patients.The researchers found that between 2018 and 2023, 551 papers examined gender-based differences affecting opportunities for healthcare professionals, while only 41 examined differences in treatment received by patients. They described this as an important gap in research.For patients, the issue can be significant. The decision to recommend surgery, an advanced procedure, a transplant or a particular medication can affect not only immediate treatment but also long-term health outcomes.The review therefore calls attention to a question that is easy to overlook in discussions about healthcare equality: equality is not only about whether women can enter hospitals or access doctors. It is also about what happens after they reach the healthcare system.

The problem is not simply about doctors

The researchers do not attribute the observed differences to individual doctors alone.Treatment decisions are made within larger healthcare systems and can be influenced by clinical guidelines, referral processes, multidisciplinary teams, previous research, available evidence and assumptions about patients.The authors also point to the history of medical research, where women were under-represented in clinical trials for decades. This raises questions about whether evidence developed largely from male patients can always be applied appropriately to women.At the same time, the researchers say more work is needed to establish why the treatment differences identified in the review occur.

A new question: Can AI repeat the same pattern?

The researchers are now planning to examine whether similar differences appear in the responses produced by generative artificial intelligence systems.That question is becoming increasingly relevant as AI tools are used to provide health information and support clinical decision-making. If existing medical literature and healthcare records contain gender-related disparities, researchers want to know whether AI systems could reproduce those patterns.The concern is not that AI necessarily creates the disparity itself, but that systems trained on existing medical information could potentially reproduce patterns already present in that information.For now, the St Andrews review provides evidence of a treatment gap that deserves closer investigation rather than a single explanation for why it exists.Its central message is more straightforward: when men and women present with the same medical condition, researchers need to keep asking whether differences in treatment are clinically justified — and, where they are not, what is driving them.