Why is it that women today spend 25% more time in poor health than men? Staff Writer Florence Lakin discusses the causes and solutions to the gender health gap.
This shocking statistic reflects the reality that countless women fight an uphill battle to access necessary healthcare. Correcting this and increasing women’s ability to participate in the workforce could give the global economy a boost of $1 trillion by 2040.
Why does this inequality exist?
A UK government study found that over 80% of women surveyed had felt unheard by healthcare professionals, proving just how many feel that their pain and symptoms are not taken seriously. Perhaps this is due to a lack of knowledge about women’s health conditions, ingrained gender biases, or both?
Historically, men were considered the ‘default patient’, meaning that they made up the majority of participants in medical research. As a result, we have a greater understanding of how health conditions present in men as opposed to in women. Unfortunately, this issue extends into conditions that primarily affect women and people with a uterus, with research into conditions such as endometriosis, PCOS and pain disorders remaining far behind where it should be.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women. Despite this, a study found that in a total of 740 cardiovascular trials, they made up only 38.2% of participants. The impacts of this underrepresentation are clear: women with heart attacks are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. In part, this is due to the under-recognition of symptoms in women. Women are more likely than men to experience a range of symptoms, not always including chest pain, such as nausea and jaw pain.
In 1977, the FDA recommended the exclusion of ‘women of childbearing potential’ from early-phase drug trials. The recommendation was a response to the thalidomide tragedy, when a drug marketed for morning sickness during pregnancy caused severe birth defects in thousands of babies. Although intended as a preventative measure, it reinforced the already male-centric nature of medical research. Since the policy was only reversed in 1993, it left a long gap in knowledge in its wake.
Beyond deficits in medical research, it is clear that the normalisation and stigma surrounding women’s pain, particularly that related to periods or sexual health, have amplified these issues. This leads to delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment and women enduring ongoing disruption to their lives.
What is being done to close the gap?
There have been recent, significant improvements in research and implementation of strategies in women’s health. Beginning in 2008, the HPV vaccination programme has successfully prevented almost nine in ten cases of cervical cancer.
In June 2025, the government announced that home testing kits will be offered to women who haven’t attended their cervical cancer check. This comes after research led by King’s College London’s Dr Anita Lim found that offering self-sampling kits could increase the number of women being screened by around 400,000 per year. These initiatives represent massive progress towards the NHS target to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040. This proves that with funding and research, large strides in women’s health are possible.
On 24 July 2025, the Women and Equalities committee launched an inquiry into reproductive health conditions in young women. The committee published a report in 2024, highlighting how women’s pain is normalised and symptoms are too often dismissed. The inquiry aims to bring both public and professional awareness and to correct these issues through a range of measures. It supports increased funding for research, as well as focusing on education women receive about when to seek medical help, ultimately aiming to bring about systemic change in how women and their health conditions are treated.
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