Society is composed of men and women, which play different social roles. Examination of interrelations between the sexes as well as analysis of established and emerging social institutions related to sex are important components of the gender medico-sociological studies. The complex study of human health and the demographic changes with their reasons is impossible without examination of the gender problems. Such sciences as medicine, psychology, pedagogics, sociology of medicine, etc. are involved in gender studies. Moreover, the problem of sex plays one of the leading roles in sociology of medicine, which examines the following gender problems (to list only few of them):
• Biological differences in men and women with due account for the genetic, hormonal, and neurophysiologic determinants in the cognitive sphere;
• Psychometric gender differences, the intellectual component included;
• Gender differences in the socio-psychological mechanisms relating to adoption of sexual roles, which affect differentiation of the cognitive potencies and the choice of the sphere of activity.
• Gender differences in biological and socio-psychological mechanisms of disease and its perception.
To some degree, the gender theories challenge the general sociology and its applications to the study of health and the methods to maintain it. Similar to most sociologists, the founders of the leading branches of sociology Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber saw no difficulties in the study of sex problems. While they analyzed citizenship and society, they paid no attention to the fact that the women had been deprived of many aspects of citizenship such as political rights and equal access to social service benefits. For instance, in his study of the causes of suicides, Emile Durkheim held that a man is almost a complete social product, while a woman is greatly the product of nature.