Sex and gender reporting in health research: why Canada should be a leader.

Sex and gender have been demonstrated to influence all domains of health, from basic mechanisms of disease development to health service utilization. It is therefore no longer acceptable to ignore sex and gender issues in health research reports if these reports are to be deemed accurate. Funding agencies and journals have been identified as primary change agents in health research systems. Canada is making progress on the funding side of the equation--applicants to Canada's federal health research funding agency are required to justify why sex and gender are relevant or not to their research designs. We argue that it is now time for Canada's leading health research journals to follow suit. We have a unique opportunity in Canada to demonstrate leadership in doing science better with sex and gender--and we should not let it be missed.