Sara Karies

MD-Scholarship

  

Sara Karies is a fourth year medical and MD-student at Kiel Univerity. Motivated by queer-feministic activism and volunteering at Fem*Med Kiel and AstA (General Students‘ Commitee), the idea of a gender-inclusive project for her Medical Doktorate was created.

As a part of the Integrated Research Training Group (iRTG) of Collaborative Research Center “Sexdiversity - Determinants, Meanings and Implications of Sex Diversity in Sociocultural, Medical and Biological Landscapes” (SFB 1665), Sara investigates the influence of sex and gender on somatosensory phenotypes, endogenous pain inhibition and individual pain perception in cisgender, transgender and non-binary people. The study is a combined project with Mara Jankowski investigating the influence of genderspecific stereotypes on pain perception and tolerance.

As the visibility of gender identities beyond the cis-binary system is increasing in society and in healthcare, an adequate database taking into account sex and gender diversity should also be available. By studying cis-male and cis-female individuals, as well as trans and non-binary individuals, it will be possible to compare their somatosensory phenotypes with the current guidelines and identify expected and possible deviations. In this way, an appeal can be made against overuse and underuse of medical resources and the goal of individualized treatment approaches can be pursued. The study also contributes to reducing the gender data and health gap and to promoting gender diversity in medicine and research.