Gender doesn't seem to affect how well people respond to treatment. Recent studies have found no differences between men and women in how much they improve with either therapy or medication, whether they're treated as outpatients or in intensive residential programs. One long-term study found that men were more likely to be symptom-free after two years, but not after five years. When the researchers looked more closely at their data, they found that women actually got better faster initially, which explained why the results looked different at different time points. Overall, the research shows that men and women respond to OCD treatment equally well.