Federal Funds for Health Issues

* I would like to respond to “Exposing Medicine’s Sex-Bias Hoax” (Commentary, April 3). While I agree with the author’s conclusion that our goal should be to increase federal support for all biomedical research, I take offense at his suggestion that such research is undermined by more attention to women’s health concerns.

It is especially misleading to compare federal funding for research on breast cancer with prostate cancer in order to suggest that women are benefiting at the expense of men. In fact the latest figures show that the vast majority of federal funding for research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 83% in FY 1992, is spent on basic research or clinical studies that include both men and women.

Today, there is still a need to focus on women’s health. Even though women are living longer, their quality of life is suffering. Older women are more likely to be affected by chronic disabling conditions such as diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity and hip fractures. These conditions not only limit mobility and function, but over time can also be life-threatening.

We also need to better understand how diseases manifest themselves differently in women or may require separate kinds of treatment. For example, heart disease is not a “woman’s disease,” but it is the No. 1 killer of American women.

The author states that one of the reasons heart disease is treated less vigorously in women than in men is because the disease occurs later in life, when the risk of many surgical procedures increases. I do not dispute this explanation. But, the questions we must now ask are: Why do women develop heart disease later in life? What preventive measures should women take? Are there new treatments which could benefit women?

I believe that the answers to these and many other questions will enhance the scope of medical research and provide answers that will benefit everyone--women and men.

SEN. BARBARA BOXER

D-Calif.