What if much of what we thought we knew about women’s health and fitness was suddenly called into question?

Researchers in many fields of science, including my area of exercise physiology, are facing this scenario, after generations of research that either left out women participants altogether or significantly reduced their numbers in countless experiments.

These practices have continued to inform, perhaps mistakenly, our understanding of issues ranging from athletic performance to the benefits of exercise, where we have been left to presume it was OK to generalize results from testing men as if they applied to women and men equally.

These are not just old studies from back in the day when women were routinely excluded from many arenas. These are also studies from the past 20 years, when many people thought research was finally catching up.

Why women were left out of research studies

Leaving women out of scientific studies has largely been the result of uncertainty over how to account for potential fluctuations related to menstruation or hormonal birth control.

Not knowing how or whether these factors might affect, for example, muscle function, researchers simply........

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