Applying a gender perspective in medicine: the urgency of including a gender-sensitive approach to ensure the right to health for everyone

With an interdisciplinary approach, this work will provide an overview of women’s health issues rooted in Western societies mainly due to gender-based discrimination. The discipline of medicine, the research in this field, and the education pass through a social and cultural filter that can hinder adequate access to healthcare, especially for women. This work will present an insight into the development of medicine, explaining several concepts, such as biological sex, gender, andronormativity, and finally intersectionality. Therefore, the discipline of gender-specific medicine will be introduced, showing how medicine has lately been shaped and designed to improve research, education, diagnosis, and treatments through the enhancement of a gender-related and intersectional approach. However, to be effective, research, diagnosis, and treatments must be supported by appropriate social policies and legal protection. Indeed, women suffering from certain illnesses face social, legal, and economic difficulties that undermine their right not only to health but also to various related aspects, such as the right to work or education. Through a multi-level approach, the work will analyse how gender-specific medicine is treated at international levels and at the Italian level.