Women's Health Updates — December 2019
Learn about recent developments in women's health as well as SWHR's activities that promote the study of sex differences and serve our mission to eliminate imbalances in care for women through science, policy, and education.
SPOTLIGHT
Women in pain need innovation. In a commentary in Morning Consult , SWHR CEO Dr. Amy M. Miller shines a light on how women are disproportionately affected by painful conditions such as migraine and endometriosis. She says it’s time for policymakers to act to address women’s pain. Read more.
Related Video: SWHR focuses on efforts to better understand women's pain. Watch now.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
The Guardian published an excerpt from a new book, Pain and Prejudice , that details women's historical exclusion from research and the harmful results — including a mention of SWHR's work to draw attention to these issues. Read the excerpt.
Two-thirds of people with Alzheimer's disease are women. Why? Some researchers say the theory that women have higher rates of Alzheimer's simply because they live longer than men “completely dismisses the importance of the female biology." These researchers are exploring how menopause — and especially estrogen — affects the brain. Read more in The Atlantic .
NIH recently kicked off a pilot program connecting two projects that aim to close research gaps by collecting data from groups underrepresented in research. The All of Us program, an effort to gather health information from 1 million people, will now provide participants who say they are pregnant with information about PregSource, a crowdsourcing platform for pregnant women. The pilot aims to enroll about 100 pregnant women in both projects. Learn more.

Related: SWHR previously wrote about these two programs in a blog post celebrating National Women's Health Week.
Implicit bias occurs when a health care provider's unconscious assumptions interfere with objectively gathering or assessing a patient. This bias contributes to health care disparities, especially for women and people of color. Learn more.
Related: Is Your Doctor Treating You Like a Man?, Family Circle
POLICY AND ADVOCACY
In its biennial report, the Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health details NIH-wide programs and accomplishments carried out in FY 2017-2018 in fulfillment of the core mission of the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH). The report highlights ORWH's research initiatives, its support of biomedical career development, and its monitoring of adherence to the NIH Policy on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research. Read the report.
Of the estimated 38 million people living with HIV worldwide, more than half are women, and women are at greater risk for HIV infection than men. Yet FDA recently approved an HIV prevention drug only for men — because the company making it didn't study women. In this commentary, Dr. Oni Blackstock of the Bureau of HIV at the NYC Health Department writes that the lack of women in clinical trials of HIV drugs and FDA’s willingness to tolerate studies that do not include them are indicative of a broader and more systemic disregard for women’s health. Read more in STAT.
FDA's Office of Women's Health announced that Dr. Kaveeta Vasisht will serve as associate commissioner for women’s health, after filling the role of acting associate commissioner for the past nine months. Under her leadership, OWH has worked to advance the health of women through scientific programs, policy development, research and outreach that incorporates an understanding of sex differences.
EVENTS AND DEADLINES
Join SWHR in celebrating 30 years of advancing women's health and looking ahead to achieving our vision of making women's health mainstream. Sponsor the event or buy tickets today!
The Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Annual Meeting will provide a forum for young investigators, their mentors, and other research scientists to meet and present their research results and engage in mentoring and networking activities. The event will take place on December 11 from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the NIH Main Campus. Register or watch the videocast .
The deadline has been extended for submitting to the Biology of Sex Differences two open special article collections: Sex Differences in Response to Androgens: Physiological and Pathophysiological and Hypertension, Preeclampsia, Renal and Cardiovascular Disease in Pregnancy . Deadline: February 1.
The Health of Women 2020 agenda caters to the learning needs of primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, physician assistants, and other health care professionals focused on women’s health in family practice, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology. Register today!