Gender-Specific Aspects in Gastrointestinal Medicine and Surgery

Angele: Several physiological and pathophysiological, pharmacological, social, and psychological differences between male and female patients have been identified with potential impact for treatment strategies. The term ‘gender medicine’ is a result of the awareness of those gender differences and applies to all fields of medicine. The recent importance of gender and associated differences in medicine will open new fields with potential implications for the clinical arena. At present, gender medicine is in a phase of finding and documenting gender-specific differences. The next step is to develop novel therapeutic approaches for the clinical arena, thereby considering gender and hormonal status. For me as an oncological surgeon, gender does not play a pivotal role for decisions regarding the treatment of our patients at the moment although anatomical differences exist.