Sen. Elizabeth Warren vowed yesterday to push for a new federal law to cut the gender bias from medical research if federal agencies such as the National Institutues of Health don’t take steps to address the issue.

Medical studies need to include more data about the effects that diseases and drugs have specifically on women, Warren said at a women’s health conference in Boston.

“If the NIH puts new regulations in place that demand better parity in research, that will be a big step forward and we don’t have to wait for legislation,” the Democratic senator told reporters. “If the NIH is reluctant, then it’s appropriate for Congress to step in.”

A report from Brigham and Women’s Hospital released yesterday found women are routinely bypassed as medical research subjects — starting at the selection of male lab mice over females — which means women end up with health recommendations that are really meant for men.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh called disparities in medical research a mark of inequality.

“It’s a form of discrimination like any other,” he said. “This is something I take very seriously.”

Dr. Paula Johnson, author of the Brigham report, told the Herald that she and her colleagues will work to raise awareness of the issue in Washington, D.C., the medical community and academia.

“This is as an important issue as equal pay,” Johnson said. “It’s time for a recommitment to women’s health. Let’s not leave women’s health to chance.”

Women were routinely excluded from medical studies before a 1993 law was passed, tying NIH funding to the inclusion of women and minorities in clinical studies. Two decades later, research specific to women is still lagging, according to the report.

Either studies include too few women, or they fail to break down results by sex. This is a problem because many drugs and diseases affect men and women differently, Johnson said. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned the insomnia drug Ambien should be taken in smaller doses by women than by men.

Johnson’s report showed that conditions such as heart disease, lung cancer and depression also affect the sexes differently.

To make research more equitable, Warren said the number of women in medical studies should be proportionate to the number of women who have a particular disease. For early-stage studies, Warren called on NIH to require researchers to report the sex of their lab animals.