Gender and Health Glossary

Conditions in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues. Approximately 80% of autoimmune patients are female, reflecting sex-based immune differences.

The 1995 UN declaration establishing women's health as a fundamental human right and gender mainstreaming as a global policy strategy.

Socially constructed roles, behaviors, identities, and expectations associated with being male, female, nonbinary, or another gender identity.

Prejudice or differential treatment based on a person's gender, which in healthcare leads to disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and research inclusion.

The systematic lack of data collected and analyzed by sex and gender, resulting in knowledge gaps about women's and gender minorities' health needs.

The psychological distress that may result from an incongruence between one's experienced gender identity and one's assigned sex at birth.

The absence of unfair and avoidable differences in health outcomes and healthcare access between genders, achieved through targeted policy interventions.

The process of integrating a gender perspective into all policies, programs, and institutional practices to promote equity.

An emerging medical discipline that systematically examines how biological sex and social gender influence disease mechanisms, presentation, and treatment across all specialties.

Societal expectations about behaviors, roles, and attributes considered appropriate for men, women, and other genders in a given culture.

Healthcare services that support and affirm an individual's gender identity, including hormone therapy, surgical interventions, and psychosocial support.

Harmful acts directed at individuals based on their gender, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and harmful traditional practices.

Medical treatment using hormones to treat conditions or, in the context of gender-affirming care, to develop physical characteristics consistent with one's gender identity.

Unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that affect understanding, actions, and decisions, including clinical judgment about patients of different genders.

A framework analyzing how overlapping social identities such as gender, race, class, and sexuality create compounding experiences of discrimination or privilege.

Physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse, disproportionately affecting women and a major determinant of gendered health disparities.

The difference in average life expectancy between genders, with women typically living 4-7 years longer due to biological and behavioral factors.

The death of a person during pregnancy or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy from causes related to or aggravated by the pregnancy.

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions.

Biological characteristics including chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive anatomy that classify individuals as male, female, or intersex.

Statistical data that is collected and presented separately for each sex, enabling identification of gender-specific health patterns.

The economic and social conditions in which people live that influence their health status, many of which are shaped by gender relations.

An umbrella term for individuals whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Domestic and caregiving labor performed without financial compensation, disproportionately done by women, affecting their health, economic status, and access to healthcare.

The phenomenon where women are misdiagnosed or undertreated because they do not present with the 'typical' (male-pattern) symptoms of a disease.