[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 10, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E925-E926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SEX DIFFERENCES ON HEALTH AWARENESS DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 10, 2005

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Sex 
Differences in Health Awareness Day.
  Scientists have long known of the anatomical differences between the 
sexes, but we also know that diseases and drugs can affect men and 
women differently.
  Thanks to the efforts of the Society for Women's Health Research over 
the last fifteen

[[Page E926]]

years to mandate that women be included in clinical trials and that 
analysis of research include sex differences at all levels, from genes 
to behavior, women and men are now gaining greater knowledge of their 
unique differences and optimal health care.
  Sex differences have been found everywhere from the composition of 
bone matter and the experience of pain to the metabolism of certain 
drugs and the rate of brain activity.
  Through sex-based biology research, the study of biological and 
physiological differences between men and women, scientists have 
discovered many differences between men and women in terms of their 
health.
  For example:
  Heart disease kills 500,000 American women each year--over 50,000 
more women than men--and strikes women, on average, ten years later 
than men.
  Three out of four people suffering from autoimmune diseases, such as 
multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, are women.
  Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of American women, causing 
an estimated 25 percent of cancer deaths in women in 2004. Several 
studies have indicated that compared to men, women who smoke are more 
likely to develop lung cancer at a younger age and at lower levels of 
exposure to cigarette smoke.
  HIV/AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death for women aged 35-44, 
and the sixth leading cause of death for women aged 25-34 in the United 
States. The efficiency of male-to-female infection of HIV is more than 
two times higher than that of female-to-male infection.
  Women are two to three times more likely than men to suffer from 
depression.
  Women comprise 80 percent of the population suffering from 
osteoporosis.
  Women are two times more likely than men to contract a sexually 
transmitted disease.
  Until the 1990s, biomedical research was firmly rooted in the male 
model--the belief that male biology (outside of the reproductive 
system) was representative of the species and that where female biology 
differed from male biology, it was ``atypical'' or ``anomalous.''
  Change occurred in the early 1990s to address the dearth of knowledge 
about female biology caused by the lack of inclusion of women in 
clinical research studies due to policies and practices seeking to 
protect the fetus from harm should a study participant become pregnant.
  Now that women are included in clinical research, much has been 
discovered about how different women are from men.
  Research on women's health can both improve and save lives. As a 
result of such research, death rates have decreased for women with 
tumors of the cervix, breast, uterus, and ovary due to advances in 
detection and treatment, such as the development of a cervical cancer 
vaccine. Quality of life has also improved for cancer patients through 
the development of less invasive surgical techniques, organ-sparing 
treatments, and better control of pain and nausea related to 
chemotherapy.
  Additionally, research on women's health can lead to less expensive 
treatments and cost-saving prevention strategies. For example, the 
total economic value to Americans from reductions in mortality from 
cardiovascular disease, which strikes 50,000 more women than men each 
year, averaged $1.5 trillion annually between 1970 and 1990.
  Most recently, scientists have discovered significant information 
with respect to the leading role the X chromosome plays in the lives of 
both women and men. Therefore, women's health research is critical to 
all of us.
  While progress has been made in recent years, there is still much 
more that Congress can do to improve women's health. The Office of 
Research on Women's Health, ORWH, in the Office of the Director at NIH 
must be fully funded so that it can continue supporting the expansion 
and funding of peer-reviewed Specialized Centers of Research on Sex and 
Gender Factors Affecting Women's Health, SCOR, and the Building 
Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health, BIRCWH, programs.
  ORWH has taken the critical long-term lead in partnering with various 
NIH institutes and centers to advance research on women's health and on 
sex and gender factors, resulting in the following developments: the 
prevention of cervical cancer with an HPV vaccine; decreasing 
cardiovascular disease in middle-aged women by preventing recurrent 
episodes of depression; basic science advances in systemic Lupus 
Erythematosis research; and discovery of bone loss acceleration before 
the final menstrual period leading to an important finding related to 
osteosporosis-related fractures.
  In addition, I urge Congress to pass legislation that I have 
introduced with Representative Pryce, H.R. 949, the Women's Health 
Office Act, a bill to provide permanent authorization for existing 
offices of women's health in five federal agencies: the Department of 
Health and Human Services; the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the Health 
Resources and Services Administration; and the Food and Drug 
Administration. This will allow these offices to carry out their 
important work without facing underfunding, understaffing, or 
elimination in the future.
  Congress should further encourage NIH to update and modify its 
guidelines to actively promote sex differences research at all levels, 
including basic research in cell and tissue culture, development and 
study of appropriate animal models, and in early stage clinical 
research.
  I would like to commend the Society for Women's Health Research for 
its research about the differences between men's and women's health 
needs.

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