A proposed $20 billion federal women’s health research strategy in the United States aims to address what campaigners describe as a longstanding gap in medical research, education and clinical care.
The 10-year roadmap, backed by more than 60 health organisations, has been developed by the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR). Its president and chief executive, Katie Schubert, said greater investment would benefit women as well as the wider country.
Research from Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal found that only five cents of every dollar spent globally on medical research and innovation goes towards women’s health.
Why women’s health research remains limited
When the SWHR was founded in 1989, 13% of the National Institutes of Health’s budget was devoted to women’s health. That figure is now below 10%, according to the organisation.
Women were not required to be included in clinical research funded by the NIH until 1993. Schubert said the legacy of that limited participation contributed to women facing what she called a “diagnostic odyssey” involving “mystery illnesses and diseases”.
She said conditions including cardiovascular disease and menopause remained under-researched, meaning women could wait longer for answers from doctors.
“Menopause is something that impacts 100% of that 51% of the population,” Schubert said, while questioning why millions of dollars continued to be directed towards other areas, including trials of medicines for men’s sexual health.
The proposed investment would cover research and innovation, better coordination between agencies, expanded education and training for clinicians, improved data collection and greater health literacy.
Schubert said more inclusive data could help researchers understand why the symptoms of the same disease may appear differently in women and men. She also said correctly collected data could allow artificial intelligence to identify previously untapped sources of information.
A wider health and economic issue
Schubert argued that addressing the gender health gap was not solely a women’s issue. Women make most healthcare decisions for their families, she said, and are often responsible for directing household spending into the healthcare system.
She also said the strategy could help reduce disparities between white women and women of colour. The lack of past inclusion of women and minorities in medical research, alongside a history of systemic racism and sexism, had left doctors with insufficient knowledge to treat some groups adequately, she said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Heart Association and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society are among the more than 60 organisations supporting the roadmap.
Schubert acknowledged the scale of the proposal but said the funding was necessary. The SWHR is now seeking to persuade Congress to make the strategy a policy priority.
In the meantime, she advised women to learn as much as possible about their own health and to prepare carefully for medical appointments, which may last only 15 minutes.
She warned that women should assess the reliability of health advice shared on social media, where she said there were both good and poor sources of information.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of those who came before us to make our voices collectively so loud that policymakers can’t ignore it anymore,” Schubert said.
