Nuclear Medicine Imaging and Therapy: Gender Biases in Disease

Gender-based medicine is medical research and care conducted with conscious consideration of the sex and gender differences of subjects and patients. This issue of Seminars is focused on diseases for which nuclear medicine is part of routine management and for which the diseases have sex- or gender-based differences that affect incidence or pathophysiology and that thus have differences that can potentially affect the results of the relevant nuclear medicine studies. In this first article, we discuss neurologic diseases, certain gastrointestinal conditions, and thyroid conditions. The discussion is in the context of those sex- or gender-based aspects of these diseases that should be considered in the performance, interpretation, and reporting of the relevant nuclear medicine studies. Cardiovascular diseases, gynecologic diseases, bone conditions such as osteoporosis, pediatric occurrences of some diseases, human immunodeficiency virus–related conditions, and the radiation dose considerations of nuclear medicine studies are discussed in the other articles in this issue.