TAPinto Parsippany: During Women's Health Month, Prioritize Medical Research

By Jeanette Hoffman, Patients Come First New Jersey’s Executive Director

May is Women’s Health Month, a time dedicated to highlighting the health needs of girls and women at every stage of life. This is a time not only to raise awareness, but to confront a persistent and troubling reality: women’s health research remains significantly underfunded and under prioritized.

Despite women making up more than half of the population, less than 9% of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding is currently directed toward women’s health research. Even more striking, global data shows that just 5% of research and development spending focuses on women’s health, and much of that is concentrated narrowly on reproductive health and cancer, leaving many other conditions overlooked.  

The consequences of this gap are real. Women are still underrepresented in critical areas of clinical research. For example, they accounted for only about 40% of participants in studies of major diseases like heart disease and cancer as recently as 2019, despite bearing equal or greater health burdens. Meanwhile, many conditions that disproportionately affect women receive less funding relative to their impact, delaying breakthroughs and limiting treatment options.  

Read the full LTE in TAPinto Parsippany here.