Women should be careful with medicines

Taking any medication, even the most common, can seriously harm a woman’s health. This is due to the fact that clinical trials are most often conducted on men or on male animals. According to recent data, women taking antidepressants during pregnancy are significantly more likely to be at risk of pre-eclampsia, which is accompanied by increased blood pressure, edema and protein in urine, as well as premature births. Harvard scientists have also found that such women are at increased risk of miscarriage and of having an autistic child.

Many pregnant women have been taking antidepressants for decades, unaware of the potential risks. This is because these drugs were not initially tested on pregnant women before being released to the market.

Each new drug must undergo a full clinical trial before it reaches the counter. Scientists are obliged to check the effects of the drug on the female body, taking into account various factors: weight, diet, lifestyle, existing health problems and interaction with other medicines. This is the only way to identify possible side effects.

However, in practice this does not always happen. Moreover, some drugs are not tested at all on women. For example, analgesics, heart and diuretics are tested on men, but are taken daily by millions of women.

The absence of monthly cycles in men makes it easier to test the efficacy of drugs, and manufacturers often rush into mass production. The results are then applied to women, which, unfortunately, does not take into account the specific features of the female body.