Why Women's Health Is Still Overlooked and Underfunded
This blog is part of YWCA BC's Gender Equality Week series, examining key issues that demonstrate why gender equality remains unfinished work. While public conversations about equality often focus on representation and rights, unequal outcomes can also be found in our health-care systems, research priorities and funding decisions.
Women's health has historically been under-researched and underfunded, with lasting consequences for diagnosis, treatment and quality of life. From heart disease and chronic pain to endometriosis and menopause, many women continue to experience health disparities that reflect broader gender inequities.
A health system built for men
The lack of funding and research devoted to women's health is often overlooked until someone experiences a delayed diagnosis, ineffective treatment or a medical system that fails to recognize their symptoms. For decades, modern medicine has largely been built for men, with them disproportionately represented in clinical research and drug trials. As a result, everything from medication dosages to diagnostic tools and treatment guidelines has been shaped by evidence that does not always reflect women's experiences. Medical schools have historically taught women’s biology primarily through the lens of reproduction, while treating other areas of health—including cardiology, neurology and pain management—as though sex-based differences are insignificant. This has
contributed to persistent gaps in research and health care that continue to affect women today. One example is heart disease. Even though it’s often considered a men’s health issue, a woman dies from it every 20 minutes in Canada. In fact, heart disease kills nearly four times more women each year than breast cancer. But breast cancer gets much more public attention as a women’s health issue. The problem is, women often experience different symptoms than we’ve been taught to recognize.
While chest pain and pain going down the left arm are commonly associated with heart attacks, women are more likely to experience symptoms such as nausea, shortness of breath, fatigue, indigestion, palpitations, or pain in the back, neck or jaw. Some women experience little or no chest discomfort at all. When medical research, education and public awareness campaigns rely on the symptoms men often experience, women can face delays in diagnosis and treatment.
Trivializing women’s pain Research shows that women's pain is often taken less seriously, with physical symptoms more likely to be attributed to emotional or psychological causes. Yet women face health conditions that are unique to or disproportionately affect them. One example is endometriosis, a frequently painful condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, often affecting the ovaries, fallopian tubes and pelvic tissue. Endometriosis affects roughly 10% of women of reproductive age worldwide, yet the average time from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis can range from four to 12 years. That can mean years of debilitating pain, heavy bleeding, fatigue and disruption to daily life before a woman receives answers, treatment or even recognition that something is wrong.
Another condition that disproportionately affects women is iron deficiency. Due to menstrual blood loss, pregnancy and postpartum recovery, women are significantly more likely than men to experience depleted iron stores. Despite being the world's most common nutritional deficiency, symptoms such as exhaustion, brain fog, low mood, hair loss and difficulty regulating body temperature are often normalized, dismissed or simply accepted as part of everyday life.
Many women are expected to work, care for their families, maintain relationships, stay physically active and manage their mental health while effectively running on empty. The consequences of gender inequality are not limited to health outcomes. Women experiencing violence often face increased physical and mental health challenges, greater reliance on health-care services, housing insecurity and economic instability. These overlapping impacts demonstrate how health inequities and gender-based violence frequently reinforce one another.
The research gap women face
Hysteria, moodiness and emotional instability—these characteristics are how women’s hormones are sometimes stereotyped. In reality, hormones play a critical role in mental, emotional and physical health. Yet hormone-based health, like perinatal health and menopause, often lack support.
Perinatal mental health issues are under-diagnosed and under-treated in Canada, leaving women venerable in the most significant hormonal transitions the human body can experience. From conception through pregnancy, hormone levels rise dramatically and remain elevated for months. After birth, these hormones plummet within the first few hours, leaving mothers susceptible to postpartum mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and in rare cases, psychosis. This hormonal drop, coupled with the demand of caring for and feeding a newborn, lack of sleep and recovery from the birth itself, can create the perfect storm for an unhealthy postpartum period. This not only affects the mother but can affect parent-child bonding, family well-being and infant development
Despite an estimated 10 million women in Canada experiencing perimenopause, menopause or post menopause, significant gaps remain in knowledge, treatment and support. A survey by the Menopause Foundation of Canada found that 95% of women experience menopausal symptoms, yet many don’t know that those symptoms are linked to menopause, leaving them unprepared for this major life transition. Symptoms can include hot flashes, night sweats, urinary tract infections, heart palpitations, headaches and migraines, anxiety, depression and memory problems.
Menopause is a nearly universal experience for women, yet it remains under-researched and often poorly understood. There is a lack of awareness, primary-care shortages and diagnostic delays, leaving many women navigating debilitating symptoms on their own while trying to maintain their work, family responsibilities and daily lives. Some possible treatments for symptoms might include hormone replacement therapy, lifestyle changes and other medications. Without diagnoses or access to these treatments, women can go years suffering in silence.
These examples represent only a fraction of women's health issues that continue to be overlooked. While awareness is growing, there is still considerable work to be done to ensure women's health receives adequate research funding, policy attention and clinical expertise. Improving outcomes will require greater investment in research, better access to care and ongoing education for health-care providers so that women can receive evidence-based support throughout every stage of life.
Overlapping barriers
Not all women experience the health-care system in the same way. Race, disability, income, geography, sexual orientation and gender identity can all affect access to care, the quality of care people receive and their health outcomes. These differences are often referred to as health inequities.
For Indigenous, Black and other racialized women, barriers can include discrimination, language and cultural barriers, and a lack of research that reflects diverse experiences. For example, Black women in Canada face a higher risk of HIV due to the combined impacts of racism and sexism. Gender-diverse people also face barriers within the health-care system. Transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse people can face challenges accessing reproductive, hormonal and preventive health services, including discrimination, having their concerns dismissed and difficulty finding providers with appropriate knowledge and training. These experiences can lead some people to delay or avoid care.
Financial and housing insecurity can create additional barriers. Women experiencing poverty or housing insecurity may have greater difficulty accessing health services and supports and experience poorer health outcomes across a range of conditions. Research has linked these circumstances to higher rates of infectious, cardiovascular, mental health and other health concerns.
What needs to change
Improving women’s health requires more than increased research funding. It also means building a health-care system that recognizes the diverse experiences of women and gender-diverse people and includes their voices in research, policy and health-care decision-making.
At YWCA BC, we know that health is connected to the broader conditions in which people live, including safety, housing, income and access to support. We advocate for policies and systems that address these interconnected barriers and advance health equity for women and gender-diverse people. Support YWCA BC’s advocacy work and help build a more equitable future where everyone can access the care and support they need to thrive.
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