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On May 28th, we celebrated the International Day of Action for Women’s Health. This day has been dedicated to women’s health since 1987, when it was proposed by the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN) during the International Women’s Health Meeting in Costa Rica.
The first call to action was focused on preventing maternal mortality and morbidity. Since then, a wide range of other topics, such as access to quality health care, safe and legal abortion, contraceptives, and government accountability in prioritizing health markets, have been included.
Despite some improvements, healthcare and research focused on women are still largely centered on their sexual and reproductive health. This failure to consider their health more broadly can result in delayed diagnoses and poorer outcomes for many medical conditions. Furthermore, women remain underrepresented in clinical research, with preclinical studies often using only male mice and with male participants disproportionately represented in clinical trials.
Women still face significant healthcare inequalities worldwide, and it is essential that the medical and research communities prioritize improving health for all women and girls, including transgender women and gender non-conforming individuals.
In this issue, we present pieces authored by scientists that are working to understand women’s biology and improve their health. In a review, Elisa Agostinetto, Giuseppe Curigliano, and Martine Piccart explore emerging treatments for HER2-positive advanced breast cancer that hold promise for improved survival rates in the upcoming years. Additionally, a series of commentaries highlight often-neglected areas in medicine. Philippa Saunders and colleagues explore improvements and challenges in diagnosis and symptom management of endometriosis, while Runsen Chen et al. discuss suicide prevention and intervention strategies for women. We also feature commentaries focused on gender equity and broader health disparities. Martha Hickey, Michelle Peate, and their coauthors discuss sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and gender disparities in menopause care, while Rosemary Morgan and colleagues discuss the health and well-being of older women in low- and middle-income countries.
This collection highlights how far we have come regarding the health and well-being of women. However, it makes clear that the journey to health equity is a long one while also highlighting the importance of an intersectional approach to healthcare that considers sexual orientation, gender identify, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We hope that this collection will join the many voices advocating for a change in healthcare and prompts genuine consideration of women’s health during study design and research funding decisions.