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Some medical schools are documenting and reporting the use of the Sex and Gender Specific Health Learning Modules as part of their LCME accreditation process.  The learning modules can provide schools with the means for meeting educational objectives and are particularly relevant to LCME standards related to curricular content, such as elements 7.5: Societal Problems and 7.6: Cultural Competence and Health Care Disparities in the Data Collection Instrument.

Although broadly utilized, the terms "sex" and "gender" are often used inappropriately, even in scientific literature. "Gender" refers to the socially constructed roles and behaviors that society considers appropriate for men and women. Masculine and feminine are gender-related terms.  “Sex” is a biological construct and includes chromosomes, cells, and tissues. Male and female are sex-related terms.

The increasing body of sex and gender specific evidence dictates a change in how medical education approaches teaching women’s and men’s health.  The current segregation of men’s health and women’s health must be expanded to a broader, more inclusive sex and gender specific health.

This approach serves to expand women’s health beyond the standard bones, hormones, and reproduction to other diseases and to include men in the consideration of the typical “female-sexed” diseases of osteoporosis, urinary incontinence, and depression.

Approaching health through the lens of sex and gender based medicine is defined as the science of how normal human biology differs between males and females and how the manifestations, mechanisms, and treatment of disease vary as a function of the complex relationship of both sex and gender.