Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990 TAG: 9006190073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"What it's really saying is, it's OK to put women's health at risk," Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment.
She was among critics who say clinical trials and the resulting data are skewed in favor of men.
The lack of gender-specific data "communicates to doctors that women really aren't that much at risk," she said. As a result, women's problems often aren't taken seriously until they reach a critical stage.
The National Institutes of Health has a $7.6 billion research budget this year. An NIH advisory committee reported in 1987 that less than 14 percent of the institute's budget went to women's health issues even though women make up more than half the population, Schroeder said.
Only $17 million is spent on basic breast cancer research annually, while less than 2 percent of NIH grants for research went to obstetric and gynecological programs in 1986 and 1987, she said.
Heart disease and cancers of the lungs and breasts are the top killers of women.
NIH has only three obstetrician-gynecologists on its permanent staff, added Schroeder, mentioning also a "dearth" of money for research on infertility and contraception.
Schroeder also referred to conclusions of a congressionally mandated study that the National Institutes of Health has made little progress in implementing its policy of including women in research study populations.
The policy, announced in October 1986, has neither been well-communicated nor well-understood, the draft study by the congressional General Accounting Office said. The report was released at the hearing.
Although NIH was not given the customary opportunity to review the draft and have its comments made part of the final report before its release, the acting head of the institutes said he generally agreed with its findings.
"My colleagues and I agree that the matter warrants sustained, high-priority attention," said William Raub, referring to the "arrogance or indifference" of scientists who knew the policy but refused to implement it.
He acknowledged under questioning by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., the subcommittee chairman, that most laboratory researchers begin their work using male animals to rule out the menstrual cycle as a variable.
Raub said this "control" is usually confined to the early stages of research. Waxman asked whether such a control skewed the results from the outset, and Raub acknowledged that the control argument has been "an overworked and overused rationale."
by CNB