Sex Gender Differences Research Articles

Artistic strategies on spatial discourse: from the sex-gender exclusions to the intersectional analysis

The aim of this paper is to present a critical and comparative analysis based on artistic proposals related to some diverse discursive strategies which have been developed during last decades in order to analyze and modify the spatial discourse. Space is understood as a technology to impose sex-gender fictions, and the works selected will be linked to various feminist, transfeminist, queer and postcolonial positionings. Through this text we present a systematization of different artistic approaches and we will reveal the spatial discourse as a mechanism to generate unequal experiences. The selected artistic proposals will show the capacity of space as capable of producing sex-gender differences, which are rooted in some binary and essentialist beliefs, and therefore excluding non standardized subjectivities beyond the heteronormative and cissexist binomial, as well as linking those exclusions to other intersectional discriminations.

Are there sex differences in muscle coordination of the upper girdle during a sustained motor task?

PurposeThe higher prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among women compared with men could be explained by sex-gender differences related to biological and physiological processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate sex differences in motor coordination during a sustained and repetitive motor task. MethodsSeventeen healthy females and 21 healthy males participated. The surface electromyography (sEMG) of the trapezius portions and serratus anterior were recorded. Root mean square (RMS) values were computed to assess the level of muscle activity. The standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CV) were computed as metrics of size of variability. The normalized mutual information (NMI) values were calculated as index of functional connectivity between muscles pairs. ResultsFemales had higher normalized RMS values for the upper trapezius (acromial fibers) and serratus anterior muscles compared with males. RMS decreased, SD and CV increased while NMI decreased for almost all muscle pairs over time. ConclusionThe present work showed some signs of sex differences in muscle coordination of the shoulder girdle during a sustained motor task, performed with the upper limb positioned below of the shoulder level.

Sex-Gender Differences in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Because of the sex-gender differences that are shown in a diversity of physiological and psychological factors, it can be speculated that the clinical presentation of symptoms as well as treatment strategies in women and men with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may differ. Studies have revealed that IBS is more common in women than men. As for the IBS subtype, IBS with constipation is significantly more prevalent among women than men. Sex hormones and gender differences may play important roles in the pathophysiology of IBS. However, its pathophysiologic mechanisms still remain largely unknown, and therapeutic implications are limited. Moreover, women IBS patients have been reported to feel more fatigue, depression, anxiety, and lower quality of life than men IBS patients. Furthermore, there has been evidence of differences in the appropriate treatment efficacy to IBS in men and women, although relatively few men are enrolled in most relevant clinical trials. A more sex-gender-oriented approach in the medical care setting could improve understanding of heterogeneous patients suffering from IBS. An individualized and multicomponent approach including sex and gender issues might help improve the treatment of IBS.

Male Type 2 Diabetic Patients Have Higher Diabetic Retinopathy Prevalence

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the main causes of visual loss in individuals aged 20-64 years old. Some evidence indicate clear sex gender differences in diabetes complications, but studies focused on sex-gender differences in DR do not give clear data. The aim of this study was to investigate sex gender difference in DR type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM). Methods: During 2015-2017 in seven diabetic out- patient clinics in Sardinia we examined under midriatic funduscopy 19.951 (11.409 males, 8.542 females) T2DM with known diabetes duration more than 5 years. Patients were classified as having: a) No DR (NRD),b) Mild non proliferative DR (RDNP), c) pre-proliferative and proliferative DR (RDPP), maculopathy (MAC). Each patient had full clinical and laboratory data available. In the same period in three diabetic outpatient clinics we performed also non midriatic retinography in other 1916 T2DM during the outpatient visit using a semi automated digital fundus camera and each imagine was evaluated by an experienced diabetologist/oculist. Results: Diabetic retinopathy was more frequent under midriatic fundoscopy in males than females: (RDNP 15.9% vs. 14.3%,p<0.01 and RDPP 5,0% vs. 4.0%, p<0.001). Semi automated non midriatic retinography allowed to exclude DR in 68% of patients. Conclusions: Our preliminary results indicate that: a) In this large sample of T2DM with known diabetes duration more than 5 years, DR is present in 24.1% of the subjects, with unit 3 having the highest prevalence (27.6%) and unit 6 the lowest (16.5%), P<0.00001 b) females have significantly less DR than males (p<0.00001), this effect is evident also excluding Unit 3 p=0.0002. c) retinography may allows to exclude DR in almost 68% of outpatient T2DM patients avoiding the more expensive classical oculist assessment. Further analysis is under way in order to identify possible markers of sex gender difference in DR. Disclosure S. Cherchi: None. A. Gigante: None. P. Contini: None. D. Pistis: None. R.M. Pilosu: None. M.A. Spanu: None. M.A. Fois: None. A. Lai: None. G. Meloni: None. G. Tonolo: None.

Young FADOI and gender medicine: sex gender differences in cardiovascular disease

We have evaluated gender-related differences in cardiovascular disease. In particular, in coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, arterial hypertension, venous thromboembolism and diabetes mellitus.

IN STEADY HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS MEN MASTURBATE MORE THAN WOMEN BECAUSE OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SEX DRIVE

This study investigated the suggestion that a gender difference in the frequency of masturbation exists due to a gender difference in sex drive. The research sample consisted of 554 Dutch participants of whom 355 were women and 199 men. The average age of the women was 42.02 years (SD = 10.77) and the average age of the men was 44.62 years (SD =11.06). All participants were engaged in a steady heterosexual relationship. Higher sex drive scores were significantly positively related to the frequency of reported masturbation (B = .14; t(550) = 10.33, p < .001) and the frequency of reported partnered sex (B = .07; t(550) = 5.10, p < .001). Furthermore, women reported a masturbation frequency of about once per two weeks, while men reported a significantly higher masturbation frequency of about twice per week (B = -.77; t(551) = -11.70, p < .001). Regarding reported frequency of partnered sex, no significant gender difference was found (B = -.04; t(551) = -.62, p = .534). Both women and men reported a frequency of about three times per two weeks. With regard to masturbation, a mediation analysis controlled for age with sex drive as a mediator, showed that sex drive significantly mediated the relationship between gender and the reported frequency of masturbation (Z = -9.14, SE = .06, p < .001). The same mediation analysis was performed regarding the reported frequency of partnered sex. For partnered sex, sex drive also had a significant mediation effect, but as a suppressor (Z = -4.85, SE = .05, p < .001). It is concluded that in steady heterosexual relationships, the gender difference in sex drive is responsible for the fact that men masturbate more than women. Possible reasons for this are explored.

The Effect of Sex and Gender on Diabetic Complications.

While in non-diabetic people the risk for cardiovascular disease is higher in men, diabetes completely reverts this sex-gender difference conferring to women a greater burden of cardiovascular complications. Additionally, all risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease appear to be more active in diabetic females than in their male counterparts. The reasons of this different impact of diabetes between genders are not completely clear. The aim of this review is trying to clarify these issues in a sex and gender perspective. Both genetic and hormonal factors are at the basis of sex-gender differences in diabetes, even do not explain the totality of data. Possibly women arrive later and in worse conditions to the diagnosis of diabetes, receive both diagnostic and therapeutic supports in a lesser measure and, finally, reach therapeutic goals as recommended by guidelines in a lesser extent. Further aspects of sex-gender differences in diabetic complications are represented by a more frequent prevalence of drug side effects in women, as well as by increased resistance to the action of drugs used in prevention or in the therapy of cardiovascular diseases. As to microvascular complications, the issue of sex-gender differences is even more complex, with some important differences emerging in experimental models 'in vitro', as well as in human pathology 'in vivo'. The main problem, however, also in this case, is that it is difficult to differentiate how common pathogenetic mechanisms acting in diabetes may differently impact between genders. In conclusion what is evident is that diabetes represents a 'risk magnifier' for the damage of both micro and macrovessels differently in men and in women. This issue deserves, therefore, a more careful approach from people involved in both clinical aspects and research regarding diabetes and its complications, in a sex-gender oriented perspective.

Sex-gender and atrial fibrillation treatment in the ATA-AF Study

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. This analysis aimed to determine the sex-gender differences in patients with AF enrolled in the observational ATAAF study. The study was conducted in 360 centers in Italy. During a 4-week period, all consecutive inpatients and outpatients aged ≥18 years, with a documented primary or secondary diagnosis of AF, were included. A total of 7148 patients (47% females) were enrolled. Females were significantly older, they more frequently needed assistance and were affected with severe cognitive impairment. The preferred anti-arrhythmic strategy in both genders was heart rate control (females: 54.7%, males: 48.4%, p75 was not (1.00, 95% CI 0.79-1.26). This study defines sex-gender differences in AF patients, including lower OAC prescription in females despite of higher thrombotic risk. Concomitant higher hemorrhagic risk and other characteristics that were more frequent in females (i.e. severe cognitive and functional impairment) may at least partly explain this trend towards gender-related under-prescription of OAC.

Ageing/Menopausal Status in Healthy Women and Ageing in Healthy Men Differently Affect Cardiometabolic Parameters

Background: Gender medicine requires a global analysis of an individual's life. Menopause and ageing induce variations of some cardiometabolic parameters, but, it is unknown if this occurs in a sex-specific manner. Here, some markers of oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction are analysed in men younger and older than 45 years and in pre- and postmenopausal women.Methods: Serum and plasma sample were assayed for TNF-α and IL-6, malondialdehyde and protein carbonyls and for methylated arginines using ELISA kits, colorimetric methods and capillary electrophoresis.Results: Before body weight correction, men overall had higher creatinine, red blood cells and haemoglobin and lower triglycerides than women. Men younger than 45 years had lower levels of TNF-α and malondialdehyde and higher levels of arginine than age-matched women, while postmenopausal women had higher IL-6 concentrations than men, and higher total cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine and IL-6 levels than younger women. Men younger than 45 years had lower total cholesterol and malondialdehyde than older men. After correction, some differences remained, others were amplified, others disappeared and some new differences emerged. Moreover, some parameters showed a correlation with age, and some of them correlated with each other as functions of ageing and ageing/menopausal status.Conclusions: Ageing/menopausal status increased many more cardiovascular risk factors in women than ageing in men, confirming that postmenopausal women had increased vascular vulnerability and indicating the need of early cardiovascular prevention in women. Sex-gender differences are also influenced by body weight, indicating as a matter of debate whether body weight should be seen as a true confounder or as part of the causal pathway.

Glutamyl cycle in the rat liver appears to be sex-gender specific

Numerous studies show sexually dimorphic responses of drug metabolizing enzymes in the liver, but it is less clear whether xenobiotic detoxification mediated by glutathione is sex-gender specific. Therefore, we investigated whether sex-gender differences exist in the biosynthesis and metabolism of GSH in the rat liver. Livers were obtained from Sprague-Dawley rats of both sexes for measurement of glutathione, its precursors and metabolites by capillary electrophoresis, whereas H(2)S and malondialdehyde were measured by colorimetric assays. The expression of glutamylcysteine ligase (GCL), the key enzyme in glutathione synthesis was detected by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. It was observed that L-methionine, glutathione, taurine and malondialdehyde (a marker of lipid peroxidation) were similar in livers from both sexes, while L-cysteine levels were significantly higher and H(2)S was lower in female rat livers. Furthermore, L-methionine and L-cysteine, L-cysteine and glutathione, L-cysteine and taurine were positively associated only in male livers. Finally, the female liver expressed less GCL than the male liver. These data suggest that the glutamyl cycle in the liver is sexually dimorphic. This difference could be linked to the increased sensitivity of females to drugs and xenobiotics.

Sex-Gender Differences in Diabetes Vascular Complications and Treatment

Diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases act as two sides of the same coin: diabetes is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease while patients with ischemic cardiovascular diseases often have diabetes or pre-diabetes. As firstly shown by Framingham study, diabetic women have an increased cardiovascular risk about 3.5 fold higher than non diabetic women, against an increase of "only" 2.1 fold found in male subjects. In view of the impact of sexual hormones on glucose homeostasis, the molecular pathways involved in insulin resistance suggest a sex-gender specificity mechanism in the development of diabetic complications leading to the unmet need of sex-gender therapeutic approaches. This has also been seen in other diabetic complications such as renal diseases, which seems to progress at a faster rate in females compared with males and women benefit less from treatment than do men. Of note, none of the trials done so far are primarily designed to assess sex-gender differences in the benefit from a specific intervention strategy, de facto excluding fertile women from experimentation. In order to provide a more evidence based medicine for women and to reach equity between men and women, sex-gender epidemiological reports, preclinical and clinical research are mandatory to evaluate the impact of gender on the outcomes and to improve sex-gender awareness and competency in the health care system. Future studies should consider sex-gender differences in the setting of randomized controlled trials with drugs.

Sex-gender differences in drug abuse: A shift in the burden of proof?

In the early years of NIDA-supported drug abuse research, much of the research on women was treatment related and conducted out of concern for their pregnancy status. Since then, drug abuse research on women has expanded to include females of all ages, including infants, children, and adolescents, both human and animal. This expansion has also extended to the study of male-female differences. In the early years of the expansion, National Institutes of Health study sections demanded a heavy burden of proof from drug abuse researchers who proposed to study male-female differences. The need for such research appeared not to have face validity. The tide has now changed with the growing body of literature attesting to its scientific and clinical validity. This change is often reflected in concerns expressed in study sections reviewing drug abuse grant applications that an applicant does not propose to analyze the data for sex-gender differences when in fact the literature suggests that such differences would be observed. Although the change has been slow, it suggests that the burden of proof is shifting from having to defend why sex-gender differences should be studied to having to defend why they should not.

Preschool Girls' and Boys' Verbal Conflict Strategies in the United States and China

Although a wide body of research on sex-gender differences with White middle-class children in the United States has supported the separate worlds hypothesis (SWH), research with children from other cultures, including Taiwan, and Latino and African American children in the United States have challenged the view of girls' language as cooperative. In this study, we examine the linguistic strategies by which middle-class girls and boys from the United States and Mainland China manage conflict. Preschoolers were videotaped playing with peers. In same-sex groupings, Chinese girls and U.S. boys used the most direct strategies, including third-party complaints and censures and aggravated commands. Chinese boys used a combination of direct and indirect conflict strategies. U.S. girls used the most mitigated strategies. The pattern found in the United States of boys being more assertive than girls supported the SWH, whereas the pattern found in China was the reverse. Possible explanations of this cultural difference are provided. In cross-sex conflict in both cultures, girls dominated in some contexts but not others, suggesting contextual complexity in the consequences of conflict strategies. Results challenge the portrait of girls' language that the SWH and other gender-language models have posited.

Different Voices, Different Genes: “Male and Female Created God Them”

Draws on a wide range of genetic, hormonal, and brain research to speculate regarding the sex-gender differences on such processes as experience, object-seeking behavior, psychosocial development, and meaning making. Notes possible implications for pastoral therapy and for the building of a future model of behavior which will be both fully human and truly Godlike.

The Queen's Two Bodies: Shakespeare's Boy Actress in Breeches

The breeches parts in Shakespeare's plays, six roles' calling for a young female character to dress herself temporarily in clothes of a boy, recently have drawn attention of those attempting to recover Shakespeare's awareness of and participation in Elizabethan constructions of gender. A significant number of recent cultural histories as well as culturally based readings of Elizabethan texts have focused attention on what Harley Granville-Barker first called the boy actress2 as one of keys to understanding formation and propagation of sex-gender differences in Renaissance social and artistic transactions. For some recent feminist historians,3 male control of both writing and playing of female parts to, among others, homosexual spectators, in a culture increasingly repressive of women's rights and freedom has

Sex-gender differences in level of androgyny

Three studies are reported that concern the level of androgyny characterizing college males and females over a 20-year span (1958–1978) and whether such males and females differ in androgynous potential when compared directly. Inspection of androgyny scores over the two-decade period indicated that females achieved appreciably higher levels of androgyny in the 1960s, but showed a plateau in androgyny level in the 1970s. Males, in contrast, showed androgynous growth in the 1970s after a decline in the 1960s. Direct comparison between the sexes indicated that males are generally more androgynous than females. This result was obtained whether questionnaire self-descriptions were used as the source of data or whether observer ratings were used following laboratory interaction.