Meeting Women's Health Care Needs

Health care has been designed around men. We can change this.

Modern science and medicine has been managed, developed, and researched, for the majority, by men. Until 1993, researchers were not required to include women in medical studies for medications and diseases. So, much of what is understood about medicine is based on how males experience and exhibit illness.

It makes sense, then, that women's health is fairly inequitable - after all, women's bodies are not only different from one another but from men.

Add ethnicity, race, and community factors and women's health equity becomes even more drastic.

On this page:

WOMEN'S HEALTH OUTCOMES ARE DIFFERENT
WAYS EQUITY CAN BE REACHED
HOW CHASE BREXTON IS HELPING TO IMPROVE HEALTH EQUITY FOR CISGENDER & TRANSGENDER WOMEN & GENDER FLUID INDIVIDUALS

Maternal Mortality for Black Americans

Black women have startlingly higher rates of maternal mortality than white women - they are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.

Maternal Mortality Nationally

American women as a group have maternal mortality rates that are 2 times as high as France and Canada.

Learn more.

Cardiovascular Outcomes

Women who go to the emergency department for possible cardiovascular issues are 1/3 to 1/2 as likely to receive the proper treatment.

Find out more.

Delays in Diagnosis and Treatment

Women, overall, experience a much higher delay than men in getting a correct diagnosis - even if they are more at risk for a disease.

Women's Pain Overlooked

Women with chronic pain are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and told their pain is a mental health issue than men who are more often treated for the pain directly.

Read why.

Providers Unprepared for LGBTQI Care

About 50% of primary care providers report feeling inadequately prepared to provide care for LGBTQI patients.

A Few Significant Moments in the Modern Women's Health Movement

1969 The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill was published. Written by Barbara Seaman, a health columnist, this exposé on the birth control pill described deadly side effects of the pill, including stroke, heart disease, depression. The controversy generated by the book cost Seaman her job but led to the 1970 federal hearing on the safety of the birth control pill.

1973 Our Bodies, Ourselves published by the Boston Women’s Health Collective; cost 30 cents per COPY.

1977 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the inclusion of women of childbearing years in Phase 1 and 2 drug trials.

1983 First comprehensive national survey of women’s health by The Commonwealth Fund, New York City.

1989 The Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues (CCWI) exposed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lack of research on women and demanded change. The Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health was founded to “advance the understanding and practice of women’s health care.”