Many have long sensed that women spend more on prescription medications than men as women have to manage more medical conditions over time.

Now a report out this month from Santa Monica-based prescription drug savings platform GoodRx Holdings Inc. has put a price tag on this gender gap: $8.8 billion a year.

The report examined national prescription medication spending databases and found that last year, women spent $39.3 billion on prescription medications, compared with $30.5 billion spent by men.

“Whether it’s recurring costs for birth control, menopause treatments or medications for conditions like endometriosis and postpartum depression, women are paying an unspoken premium simply to maintain their health,” report authors Tori Marsh and Lauren Chase concluded. “These hidden health care costs add another dimension to the infamous ‘pink tax,’ or the well-documented pricing disparities for consumer goods that women face.”

GoodRx has a platform that compares pharmacy prices for prescriptions, drawing from its network of 70,000 participating pharmacies. The company also provides discount programs for prescriptions for its customers.

Marsh, a public health specialist who oversees GoodRx’ drug database, wrote the report; Chase, who ensures that database is up-to-date and accurate, provided the analysis. They used information from pharmacies on prescription fills, along with data from recent reports released by health care database and analytics company Iqvia.

Marsh and Chase concluded in their report that women use medications more than men because they have unique health care needs, such as gynecological visits, care during pregnancy, menopause and greater frequency of chronic conditions such as autoimmune disorders.

‘Female-specific conditions’

Last year, according to the report, women spent more than $1.5 billion on treating these and other “female-specific conditions.”

This results in more visits to doctors and more prescriptions to be filled, not just to treat current pain or discomfort but to avoid bigger problems in the future.

“Many of the conditions women manage, from migraines to anxiety to asthma, can have debilitating effects if left untreated, leading to lost productivity, diminished quality of life, and even higher medical expenses in the future,” the report stated.

These statements are backed up with numbers in the report: Women spend 351% more than men on migraine medications, 326% more on dry-eye medications, 103% more than men on both acne treatments and anxiety medications and 33% more than men on asthma treatments.

Many of these conditions are chronic.

“These recurring costs build up, contributing significantly to the gender gap in health care spending,” the report stated.

For some conditions, the medications can be costly, such as the average spend of nearly $38 per prescription for morning sickness.

But even relatively cheap medications, such as birth control, add up over time, the report noted.

Women between the ages of 18 and 44 see the greatest gender gap in prescription medication costs, according to the report, noting that in certain years in this age range, women can spend as much as 64% more than men of equivalent age.