AIDS and women.

A number of recent critiques have described the detrimental effects of male-centered approaches to medicine, which have resulted in exclusion of female subjects in drug trials and understudy of diseases of women. AIDS represents a prime example of a disease in which a male-centered approach has placed women at a disadvantage for diagnosis, treatment, and care. A CDC Case Definition that does not include gynecologic conditions related to AIDS, research emphasizing women as vectors of transmission to fetus or male partner, and failure to include large numbers of women in AZT and other drug trials are examples of the results of approaches that do not focus on AIDS in women. Including a female-centered perspective in AIDS research will reveal information to help complete the AIDS picture for women, men, and children.