The article is about animal research, not human trials. Human trials are not mentioned anywhere in the article. Metabolisms is also not mentioned. "Both testos

The article is about animal research, not human trials. Human trials are not mentioned anywhere in the article. Metabolisms is also not mentioned. "Both testosterone and estrogen are powerful neuromodulators (12), and so if the potential for intracohort variation in ovarian hormones is concerning, then the same concerns should apply to hormone-associated variability in male subjects. But when male animals made up the majority of experimental subjects, basic scientists mostly considered hormonal variability a nonissue. No one lamented that data would be uninterpretable without careful tracking of dominant versus subordinate cage mates or testosterone assays—any variability in data was largely dismissed as natural randomness. However, when the NIH began to explore requiring its grantees to include both sexes in animal experiments, concerns regarding data variability resulting from ovarian hormones were central to the discussion" This is the core of the discussion. Something which the article miss to bring up is that part of the basic research into stress hormones came about because a famous case where a medical research into ulcers were mishandling test subjects and got uninterpretable data as a result, which promoted further studies. It also lead to stricter standard in handling of test animals in order to minimize variation of stress hormones (which is also more humane so win-win). I personally agree with the article that a variation in testosterone should be seen in the same light as a variation in estrogen. If researchers currently dismiss variation of male hormones as natural randomness then it follows that variation of female hormones of the same amplitude carries similar value. The exception is if it is possible to create studies where the variation of hormones can be decreased, in which case single-sex animal studies might be preferred. In the end however it comes down to the question of natural randomness. A mouse is a very different animal from a human and thus unless there is evidence that hormones will impact the study it might be best practice to treat hormones as natural noise and use animals from both sexes. < We respond differently to antidepressants In 1993 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act set a new standard which required that both women and men must be included in human trials in regard to treatment for depression. That fight is 30 years old and has already been won. No one is arguing in favor of single-sex human trials.