Injured women face discrimination over life-saving drugs, say researchers

The administration of a life-saving drug that cuts the risk of bleeding to death by 30% can cause sex discrimination for injured women.

Even though tranexamic acid is equally effective regardless of sex, female trauma victims are less likely to receive it.

These results are concerning. TXA is a life-saving treatment for traumatic bleeding. Prof Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was involved in the study, said that women were treated less frequently than men regardless of their risk of death from bleeding.

This looks like sex discrimination and there is an urgent need to reduce this disparity so all patients have the chance to receive it.

TXA helps blood to clot, and is used to prevent excessive bleeding in various situations, including where there is known or suspected severe bleeding after an injury. Following certain types of head injury, it is also given.

Tim Nutbeam and colleagues at the University of Plymouth reanalyzed data from two large trials which showed that giving TXA within three hours of traumatic injury reduces the risk of death. The drug reduces the risk of death regardless of sex.

They looked at data from 216,000 patients who were included on the Trauma Audit Research Network database to see if they were treated differently.

Women were less likely to receive tranexamic acid than men, regardless of the mechanism of injury or the risk of bleeding, according to Nutbeam.

It is already known that women with chest pain are less likely to receive aspirin, less likely to be resuscitated for out of hospital cardiac arrest, and less likely to be taken to hospital.

Explaining why these differences exist requires further research.

The training that doctors and paramedics have received may be an issue.