Gender Medicine: A Novel Interpretation of Equal Opportunities?

to allow women to achieve the same opportunities as males. More and more doors have been opened to women, so that the most “masculine” activities, such as army or security have allowed the participation of women. In particular, in Italy at this moment, medical students are about 70% female. Despite the concept of "equal opportunity," medicine has recently discovered that males are different from females, in terms of pathophysiology and, consequently, different therapies are needed. Methods: Health spending has interesting differences when we compare the male population to the female. The total pharmaceutical expenditure is substantially the same but, if we sub-divide them into categories, we find important differences between the two genders. Lifestyles determine the increase in spending. Changing lifestyles and increasing sport leads to health savings. Results: The different distribution of sports for men and women can be interpreted as a cause of the major spending of women vs. men. In Italy, there has been a rapid increase in general and practitioners of sports recognized by the Olympic Committee. Conclusions: This gap is subsequently declined, but has not yet been filled. The survey on sport, carried out by ISTAT in December 2000 as part of the research on leisure, indicates a rate of sportsmanship 37.8% for men and only 22.6% for women.