Researchers have been working to uncover these kinds of biases in medicine. Recently, the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion has jeopardized such research as universities react to political pressure and federal agencies comb through grants looking for projects that violate the president’s orders.

Native American women have the highest rate of ovarian cancer. Black women with ovarian cancer have lower rates of survival compared to white women. Finding ovarian cancer early can lead to better chances of survival.

So far, it’s unknown why the test doesn’t perform uniformly across groups. The researchers suspect it has something to do with a harmless genetic variation that is more common in people of African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and West Indian descent.

Initial studies of the test, published in the 1980s, didn’t record people’s races but were in mostly white populations.