Health research and health monitoring are sex/gender-sensitive when they comprehensively take into account social and biological dimensions of sex/gender, as well as their interactions, thus assuming a multidimensional understanding of sex/gender.

Statements about health among groups of women and men are often inconsistent with individual experience because they are highly generalised. For one thing, comparisons between women and men do not take into account the diversity within and between sex/gender groups. Furthermore, other social dimensions besides sex/gender, such as education, income or ethnic origin, shape people's realities in significant ways. According to the concept of Intersectionality, these various social dimensions are inextricably interwoven, and through their combination unique life realities emerge.

Gender is an umbrella term that encompasses different social and cultural aspects that relate to the (ascribed) sex of a person, such as socially-constructed norms, roles or identities. You can read about other dimensions of gender here.

Sex relates to the biologicalaspects of sex/gender. It is similarly multidimensional and describes the physical characteristics according to which a person is described as female, male or intersex. As a rule, such an attribution is made at the latest after birth on the basis of the external and internal reproductive organs of the child. Other dimensions of biological sex are describe here.

The social construction of sex makes it clear that social and biological aspects of sex/gender are ultimately inseparable. Moreover, the two dimensions can interact with each other in different ways. Therefore, throughout this website, we use the term sex/gender, which is understood to include both the social and biological dimensions.