{
  "id": 6205272,
  "title": "A big assumption has kept women out of health and fitness studies for years. What if it's wrong?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/08/a-big-assumption-has-kept-women-out-of-health-and-fitness-studies-for",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-08T00:40:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-big-assumption-women-health-years.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "What if the assumption that has kept women out of health and fitness studies for years is wrong? Researchers across various scientific fields, including exercise physiology, have faced a situation where they either excluded women participants or reduced their numbers significantly in countless experiments. This practice has shaped our understanding of various aspects, from athletic performance to the benefits of exercise, leading to the incorrect generalization of results for both genders. This issue isn't confined to older studies from previous decades but also extends to recent research from the past 20 years, which assumed that generalizing results from male participants would apply to both genders equally. The primary reason for this exclusion was the uncertainty over how to account for fluctuations related to menstruation or hormonal birth control. Researchers simply included fewer women or excluded them altogether, based on assumptions that later turned out to be incorrect. The tide began to turn with a groundbreaking discovery in my field: the finding that menstrual cycles typically do not significantly impact blood vessel function and that there are no meaningful differences in muscle or performance between women using hormonal birth control and those not using it. This revelation overturned a 1995 study that had found the opposite and was often cited as the reason for excluding women from research. The insight came from graduate students Ninette Shenouda and Stacey Priest, who questioned long-standing assumptions. Extensive experiments revealed no significant differences in blood vessel and heart health during exercise based on the menstrual or contraceptive cycle. Similar findings have emerged in other areas of exercise physiology, such as the impact of menstrual cycle phase on responses to resistance exercise training. By leaving women out of research, we have been operating under incorrect premises without any justification. This revelation prompts a critical question: are there other areas where men and women differ significantly or are more alike than previously thought? This new perspective has exposed a major knowledge gap in understanding the similarities and differences between men and women in various health and fitness contexts. This realization marks a crucial turning point, as it compels researchers to address the barriers to women's inclusion in studies, leading to a broader understanding of sex-specific health information. It is now essential for researchers across disciplines to question their assumptions and include women in their studies, revealing new knowledge that can significantly improve our collective well-being. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.",
  "summary": "What if much of what we thought we knew about women's health and fitness was suddenly called into question?",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}