(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Gender medicine is fighting to go mainstream, but funding gaps and political pushback are making it very hard. This isn't stopping a pioneering group of doctors in Switzerland. This content was published on October 23, 2025 - 13:58 6 minutes

I report on the Swiss pharmaceutical industry and healthcare topics such as access to medicine, biomedical innovation, and the impact of diseases like cancer. I grew up just outside San Francisco and studied international affairs with a focus on development economics and healthcare policy. Prior to joining SWI swissinfo in 2018, I was a freelance journalist and a researcher on business and human rights.

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When Carolin Lerchenmüller became the first full professor of gender medicine in Switzerland last year, she told Swissinfo that she didn't want to be a mascot. Her goal was to establish gender medicine as a“full-fledged academic discipline”.

The German cardiologist at the University of Zurich echoed those sentiments on Monday at the first Swiss Gender Medicine Symposium in Bern.“When you start, it is about having pioneers,” said Lerchenmüller.“But to survive, gender medicine can't be associated with individual people. It needs to be institutionalised.”

Gender medicine is a new field that acknowledges that health and disease are affected by sex and gender, and that aims to integrate the biological and sociocultural aspects into research, medical practice, and education.

Sex refers to biological characteristics such as chromosomes, hormones and anatomy. These influence disease development and how drugs are metabolised, for example. Gender refers to social and cultural roles and identity. It influences, for example, how people seek care, how symptoms are communicated or perceived, and what kinds of risks or stressors individuals face in their daily lives. Source: UZH

A lot has been achieved towards that goal, Lerchenmüller told Swissinfo. There is now a Swiss Society for Gender Health, a national research project on gender medicine, and draft guidelines for considering sex and gender in cardiology.

But she says that globally the field faces headwinds. Since taking office US President Donald Trump has lodged a full-scale assault on diversity and inclusion in workplaces and research. US health and science agencies have scrapped funding for hundreds of projects and redacted webpages and guidance on gender diversity. Under pressure, pharmaceutical companies also toned down their advocacy and goals on diversity, equity and inclusion.

More More Switzerland now has a Professor of Gender Medicine. She's here to stay.

This content was published on Sep 20, 2024 Carolin Lerchenmüller says it will take time to fully understand how and why women react differently to some diseases and treatments.

Read more: Switzerland now has a Professor of Gender Medicine. She's here to

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