America is making a choice about women’s health, and it is the wrong one. Every year that we delay investing in women’s health research, undervalue the doctors who care for women, and tolerate a system that treats women’s medical needs as secondary, we push the cost onto the next generation. If we do not change course now, today’s daughters will inherit a healthcare system that fails them just as it has failed their mothers.
It is a policy decision, and it can be reversed. The recently endorsed National Strategy to Close the Women’s Health Gap offers a path forward. Supported by 37 medical organizations, it calls for a $20 billion federal investment over the next decade to address decades of neglect in women’s health research.
Congress should act on it. This is not about giving women special treatment. It is about correcting a national failure that affects every American.
Women are mothers, daughters, workers, caregivers, business owners, and the people who often coordinate healthcare for entire families. When women receive delayed diagnoses, limited treatment options, or inadequate care, the effects spread through households, workplaces, schools, and the economy. The numbers make the problem impossible to dismiss.
Only 8.8 percent of National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending on research grants from fiscal years 2013 through 2023 went to women’s health research. That imbalance has consequences. Conditions affecting millions of women continue to receive less attention, fewer treatment options, and slower scientific progress than they deserve.
I see those consequences every day. Patients arrive after years of being told their symptoms are normal, exaggerated, or something they simply have to live with. Pelvic pain, menopause, hormonal disorders, sexual dysfunction, and other conditions often go untreated for far too long.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
