All the way back in ancient Greece, women were seen as lesser, ‘unfinished’ versions of men. Hippocrates, also known as the father of modern Western medicine, saw women’s bodies as deviations from norm.
So for thousands of years, anatomy texts were all based on the male body. Even in medical textbooks today, only 21% of whole-body images represented females, and mainly in sections specifically addressing reproductive anatomy.
In recent biomedical studies, 80% of animals and 60% of human trial participants were male — and that’s after women were excluded or even banned from trials for decades.
This exclusion has real consequences: wrong doses, faulty devices, and higher rates of adverse reactions — even for common medications.
Doctors were trained to recognise symptoms in male bodies, so women’s symptoms were often missed, dismissed, or misunderstood.
Medical professionals aren’t purposely giving women worse treatment. They were taught under a system that didn’t prioritise us, and studied male bodies that performed differently to ours.
We believe that one day, the gender health gap will fully close — but it’ll take all of us to get there. Ovum is just a small part of the movement, but a very important one.
When you use Ovum, you’re fuelling a longitudinal health study for women, helping researchers understand how medications interact with the female body, while giving your doctors the insight to care for you properly.