Until around 1990, it was common for medical trials to be carried out almost exclusively on men. There were some good reasons for this. ‘You don’t want to give the experimental drug to a pregnant woman, and you don’t want to give the experimental drug to a woman who doesn’t know she’s pregnant but actually is,’ says Arthur Arnold. The terrible legacy of women being given thalidomide for morning sickness in the 1950s proved to scientists how careful they need to be before giving drugs to expectant mothers. Thousands of children were born with disabilities before thalidomide was taken off the
...more
