Medicine ignored women until the 90s — and I’m fuming about it
I’m currently reading The Vagina Business — and let me tell you, I’m frustrated. No, scratch that. I’m raging. How is it that for most of modern medical history, women were basically invisible in clinical trials? How is it that up until the 1990s, medicine was tested almost exclusively on men — and doctors just assumed it would work the same way on us?
We’re talking about centuries of research, billions of dollars in funding, and an entire healthcare system built on the idea that male bodies are the default. The result? Women have been misdiagnosed, under-treated, and straight-up gaslit about their health concerns for decades. And it’s not just a historical injustice — it’s still affecting us today.
Medicine wasn’t designed for us
Let’s rewind. For most of the 20th century, women were actively excluded from clinical trials. The official excuse? Hormones.
Women’s bodies, with their pesky monthly cycles and fluctuating oestrogen levels, were deemed “too complicated” to study properly. Rather than figuring out how drugs worked across a diverse range of bodies, researchers took the easy route: they tested everything on men and hoped for the best.
The turning point came in 1993, when the U.S. National Institutes of Health finally made it mandatory to include women in clinical trial1. But by then, the damage was done. Decades of medical research had already been shaped around the male experience, leaving huge gaps in our understanding of women’s health.
At Hey Sister!, we can assure you that all of our clinical trials have been undertaken on women. Because when you’re creating products to support menstrual health, gut wellness, and period pain relief, the idea that you’d test them on anyone but women is absurd. Every formula we’ve developed has been backed by science, studied on women’s bodies, and designed to actually work with the complexities of the menstrual cycle.
The fallout: women’s health takes a hit
The consequences of this exclusion have been devastating. Here’s just a taste of what happens when medicine isn’t designed with women in mind:
1. Higher risk of misdiagnosis
Women are far more likely than men to be misdiagnosed when they have a heart attack3. Why? Because most of the early research into heart disease was conducted on men, leading to a medical playbook that doesn’t account for the way heart attacks manifest in women.
While men often experience the classic “crushing chest pain” symptom, women are more likely to have nausea, shortness of breath, and back pain — symptoms that are frequently dismissed as anxiety or indigestion.
2. Medications that work differently on women
Did you know that the recommended dosage for some common drugs was only adjusted for women after they’d already been on the market for years? Take zolpidem, a sleep medication available in Australia under brands like Stilnox. Research has found that women metabolise it more slowly than men, making them more likely to wake up groggy — or even dangerously impaired — after taking the “standard” dose4.
And it’s not just zolpidem. Studies have found that women experience 50–75% more adverse drug reactions than men because medication doses were originally calculated based on male physiology.
3. Pain is still not taken seriously
Women’s pain is often dismissed, minimised, or blamed on emotional distress. Conditions like endometriosis, which affects 1 in 7 women in Australia, take an average of seven years to diagnose2. Why? Because for too long, period pain was seen as “just part of being a woman.”
The medical industry simply didn’t prioritise understanding it. And the same pattern plays out across conditions like PCOS, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune diseases, where women’s pain is frequently downplayed or ignored altogether.
Menopause? We’re on our own
If you thought things got better as we age, think again. The research gaps around perimenopause and menopause are shocking. Even today, we’re still trying to unravel basic questions like:
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Why do some women experience extreme symptoms while others breeze through menopause?
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How does HRT affect long-term health, and why did it take so long for researchers to reconsider the flawed studies that made it controversial?
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Why is there still no comprehensive medical protocol for managing menopause beyond “grit your teeth and bear it”?
We’re expected to “just get on with it,” even though menopause affects every single woman who lives long enough.
Enough is enough — we deserve better
So what do we do? For starters, we talk about it. Loudly. Because history has shown that women’s health issues don’t get taken seriously until we make noise.
And we demand better. Better research. Better medical training that actually includes female physiology. Better support for conditions like endometriosis and menopause, which have been sidelined for too long.
Most importantly, we take charge of our own health. That means advocating for ourselves in medical appointments, pushing for second opinions when necessary, and seeking out natural, science-backed alternatives when mainstream medicine fails us.
At Hey Sister!, we’re part of the change. We’re here to support your cycle health — whether you’re battling painful periods, navigating perimenopause, or just trying to feel like yourself again. Because our health isn’t an afterthought. It never should have been.
Join the conversation
Have you ever felt dismissed by a doctor? Struggled to get answers about your health? Tell us your story — we’re listening. And we’re not stopping until women’s health gets the attention it deserves.
References
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National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health. History of women's participation in clinical research. Available at: orwh.od.nih.gov
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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 1 in 7 Australian women aged 44–49 have endometriosis. Available at: aihw.gov.au
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Association of American Medical Colleges. Why we know so little about women’s health. Available at: aamc.org
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Harvard University. Making a sex-difference fact: The case of zolpidem (Ambien). Available at: scholar.harvard.edu
