Women’s health: Gaps in research and knowledge finally being closed
The Danish government has just decided to allocate DKK 160 million for a new national centre for research into women’s health. This is a historic decision that we have long been waiting for.
For decades, women’s health has been underprioritised in research. The male body has been the norm when developing drugs and treatments or conducting clinical trials. And women have been left out of trials in many cases because their biology was seen as too complex and their hormonal changes as a disruptive element in the quest for clear results.
The consequences are serious.
We simply know too little about the female body – both the healthy and the sick.
Women live longer than men, but also endure more years of poor health. Women, on average, have about seven more annual sick days than men, and significantly more women than men are in flexi-jobs or have taken early retirement.* And the differences are not explained by their biology alone. A lack of knowledge is also partly to blame.
In lacking knowledge about the biology and pathology of the female body, we miss diagnoses, delay treatments and see a loss of quality of life – and billions of Danish kroner. McKinsey has estimated that closing the gap between women’s and men’s health would increase our gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 1 per cent.
With a national centre for women’s health, we will have the opportunity to bring together the strongest resources in Denmark to create the knowledge that is lacking across universities, hospitals and the various disciplines. It is not intended to be a project for a single environment, but a combined exercise for Denmark as a whole.
Other countries are way ahead. Norway has had a national centre for women’s health since 2006, the UK has appointed a Women’s Health Ambassador, while in Sweden dedicated work is already being done on everything from pregnancy to menopause. Now, it’s our turn.
The investment decided by the government is a hugely important first step that gives us a unique opportunity to create greater equity in health – not just for women, but for society as a whole. Let’s seize it together across all the various areas of expertise and organisations throughout Denmark.
*Source: World Economic Forum, 31 January 2024: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/01/women-health-davos-2024/