Concordia researchers establish gaps in male-centered health research on topics such as menopause and marginalized care.
When Professor Claudine Gauthier tried to research menopausal health, she was astonished to find the lack of information available online.
Gauthier, a physics professor at Concordia University, is making significant contributions to the male-centric research practices that have shaped an incomplete understanding of aging. She focuses her studies on menopause, an important yet under-studied stage of a menstruating person’s life.
“I think part of it was just realizing that there was not a lot of information out there on it, and as a woman myself, of course, asking questions and then realizing that the information is not there,” she said.
Gauthier’s work has revealed critical links between heart disease, cognitive decline, and oxygen flow to the brain, particularly in menopausal individuals, a group often overlooked in aging studies.
For example, treatments are often developed with men as the primary test subjects, even for diseases that disproportionately affect those who menstruate. In the case of Alzheimer’s, such individuals are twice as likely to be affected by it. Yet, the medication is exclusively tested on men, according to Gauthier.
“There’s a huge blind spot here,” she said.
This disparity affects several menopausal diseases and is not limited to Alzheimer’s. Gauthier notes that hormonal changes before and after menopause show apparent differences in the prevalence and progression of diseases such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis (MS).
“We observe that brain aging in cisgender women is strongly influenced by menopause due to the drop in hormones such as estrogen, which plays a crucial role in protecting brain function,” she explains.
Concordia’s Quantitative Physiological Imaging Lab, led by Gauthier, uses advanced MRI techniques to study brain aging, cognitive decline, and cardiovascular impacts.
Representing underrepresented communities in research
Associate Professor of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University Dr. Gilbert Émond argues that researchers must actively engage with underrepresented communities to understand where these research gaps exist.
“Please bark, say something because I can’t tell that you need something if you don’t show [it],” he said.
According to Gauthier, the neglect of needs like postmenopausal health is a partly result of a lack of initiative to pursue it.
“Many people’s research interest is driven by their own experiences,” Gauthier said. “You just don’t ask yourself the same questions when it doesn’t apply to you.”
Other researchers are exploring the blindspots that exist in their medical field.
“That information, that feedback, those interactions; they will fit me, they will propagate information that I or we, as researchers, can use to criticize questions to create tension in our assumptions of reality,” said Mateus Neves, a PhD student in Concordia’s Individualized Program (INDI).
The business of health research
Émond warns that research funding tends towards profitable treatments rather than the social aspects of care that could provide long-term support, leaving these needs unmet.
“Research is, for many people, a business,” he said. “[The research goes] where the money is. And once they find pills or something that helps, they don’t extend that to the social aspects.”
Émond believes in a more holistic approach to need-based research. For example, he says long-term social support for HIV-positive mothers remains under-researched, perpetuating disparities in care.
“How do you tell a kid that is eight years old that his mother is HIV-positive, but she won’t die tomorrow?” he said.
Research rarely addresses such complex family dynamics, and Émond encourages financing for social and pharmaceutical interventions.
Émond sees this gap as symptomatic of a more significant profit-driven funding issue, especially for marginalized communities.
“The funds don’t go there because people don’t feel a crisis,” Émond said.
Gauthier’s findings are a step forward toward widening this narrow focus.
“Our common wisdom about aging processes represents what happens in men, and what we were seeing in women was often very contradictory to what had been documented before,” she said.
