Table 1 Illustrative examples of clinical conditions and studies in which desirable biases would be beneficial for both basic and clinical research as well as diagnosis and treatment.

Autistic spectrum disorder

There is a current lack of consideration of the demonstrated age-dependent sex differences in the symptomatology related with impairments in social communication and interaction, expressive behaviour, reciprocal conversation, non-verbal gestures for diagnostic purposes¹²³.

Differential diagnostic criteria for males and females could facilitate the identification of the clinical diagnosis leading to appropriate treatment.

Cardiovascular disorders

Although it has been documented that men and women respond differently to many cardiovascular medications such as statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and β-Blockers among others, adopted treatments do not consider sex differences¹²⁴.

Making prescriptions according to the sex of the patient could lead to improved health benefits.

Despite the fact that Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death among women¹²⁵, the majority (67%) of patients enroled in clinical trials for cardiovascular devices are male¹²⁶.

The application of a desirable bias towards women would lead to a more accurate representation of sex differences in clinical research.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS)

Most of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) focus on white male subjects¹²⁷ and those that explore sex differences in complex traits are scarce¹²⁸.

The introduction of desirable biases to deliberately include female subjects and other ethnicities in GWAS could lead to better account for potential sex differences in disease that are currently unknown because of being overlooked.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

The observed lower female representation in HIV clinical trials depends, among other factors, from the disadvantaged awareness about treatment and enrolment options compared with men^129,130,131.

Promoting empowerment initiatives in those patients with disadvantages will increase their exposure to treatment options and clinical trial enrolment.