25 facts about gender health disparities in 2025

On December 11, 2024, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Women’s Health Research. Jill Biden concluded her speech by saying: I will continue to build partnerships like the ones that have brought us here today and continue to seek funding for innovative research. ”

But the Biden administration is scheduled to vacate the White House next month, and the Trump administration’s goals are unclear at best. Without federal support, funding, and “groundbreaking research,” women may have to advocate for improved health care themselves. Here are 25 facts about women’s health for 2025. These facts are meant to educate and empower these women about how gender health disparities affect them and what kinds of bias they may encounter. Help women and others understand why women’s health should be a priority. 1st place.

overview:

1. Gender health disparities, or inequalities in access to health care that lead to gender health disparities, are equivalent to 75 million years of life lost each year to poor health and premature death.

2. For more than 770 diseases, women are diagnosed on average 4 years later than men, if correctly diagnosed, even when men and women experience the same disease.

cancer:

3. Over the past 40 years, lung cancer diagnosis rates have increased by 84% in women, but have decreased by 36% in men. Additionally, although smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, more than 50% of women with lung cancer worldwide are nonsmokers, compared to only 15-20% of men. Still, lung cancer screening guidelines only capture smoking history, putting nonsmoking women at risk for delayed diagnosis and lower subsequent survival rates.

4. While lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women, breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers (accounting for approximately 1 in 3 new cancers in women each year). ). Breast cancer is also one of the most expensive cancers to treat. A 2020 study estimated that it costs 14% of all cancer treatment costs, or $29.8 billion.

5. 50% of women have dense or very dense breasts and are 4 to 6 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with less dense breasts. However, mammography, the most common screening test for breast cancer, can miss about 50% of cancers in women with dense breasts.

Cardiovascular disease:

6. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, accounting for one in three deaths.

7. However, women with symptoms consistent with coronary heart disease, a type of cardiovascular disease, were twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness than men with the same symptoms.

Clinical trials:

8. As of 2022, women were approximately 50.5% of the U.S. population but accounted for 41.2% of all clinical trial participants.

9. Specifically for oncology, 51% of cancer patients are women, but only 41% of oncology clinical trial participants are women. As of 2022, Blacks and African Americans will represent 2% to 5% of all participants (male and female) in oncology clinical trials, and 3% to 6% will be Hispanic or Latino. Masu. In contrast, Blacks or African Americans made up 12.1% of the U.S. population and 15% of the cancer population, compared with approximately 18.7% and 13% of Hispanics or Latinos, respectively.

10. Drug dosages are based on clinical trials, even though most of the trial participants are male and white. As a result, there are gender differences in drug dosage for 86 drugs, including antidepressants, antiepileptics, cardiovascular health drugs, and painkillers, all approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).

contraception:

11. In the United States, more than 19 million women of reproductive age live in contraceptive deserts, where they do not have reasonable access to a health center in their county that offers a full range of contraceptive methods.

12. Estimates of the economic impact of family planning suggest that spending $3.6 billion annually to provide contraceptives to everyone who wants them would yield $432 billion in annual benefits, or for every $1 invested. It turns out that you can expect to make a profit of $120.

Endometriosis:

13. Endometriosis affects approximately 10% of girls and women of reproductive age worldwide and causes fatigue, heavy or irregular periods, debilitating pain, and infertility. In fact, 24-50% of infertile women have endometriosis.

14. Yet, endometriosis receives only $16 million (about 0.038% of the annual health research budget) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Evvy, a women’s health startup that publishes books on gender health disparities and supports women’s health nonprofits, says it will focus on erectile dysfunction from 2019 to 2023. funding was six times higher than funding for companies researching endometriosis.

Maternal health:

15. More than 60% of maternal deaths are preventable.

16. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.

Menstruation and menopause:

17. In a 2023 study, 58% of women didn’t know what a normal menstrual cycle looked like, and 30% learned about menstruation only after they started.

18. All menstruating women experience menopause and spend more than a third of their lives in perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. However, as of 2023, only 31.3% reported that their obstetrician-gynecology programs even had a menopause curriculum.

19. In total, the United States loses more than $26 billion annually “because of the failure to address the effects of menopause on working women.” Of that amount, $24.8 billion was due to direct medical costs and $1.8 billion was due to lost work days.

Medical personnel:

20. Women make 80% of household health care decisions and represent approximately 80% of the total health care workforce. (Incidentally, approximately 50% of all employed workers are women across all occupations.)

21. As of 2022, women who see a male surgeon are 16% more likely to have a complication and 20% more likely to require an extended hospital stay than if the surgeon were a woman. and were 32% more likely to die.

22. Hospitalized patients in the United States were less likely to die or be readmitted within 30 days when treated by a female physician than a male physician, regardless of gender.

Funding women’s health:

23. 76% of women’s health companies have female founders. However, in 2023, female founders received only 1.8% of VC funding across all sectors, including healthcare. For black female founders, that percentage is 0.48%.

24. The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research was announced in November 2023. In less than a year, nearly $1 billion has been raised for women’s health research. This funding includes $500 million from the U.S. Department of Defense, $200 million from the National Institutes of Health, and $110 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and will begin in October 2024. Awarded to 23 teams out of 1,700 in a month. Filed across 45 states and Washington, D.C., and 34 countries.

25. A $350 million investment in women’s health is estimated to generate $14 billion for the U.S. economy.

At the White House Conference on Women’s Health Research, First Lady Jill Biden said, “We’ve invested nearly $1 billion in this research on women’s health…and women in this country are paying attention.” Ta. In addition to the 10 points listed here, there are more than 25 clear facts across all health categories that women need to continue to pay attention to, highlighting the current gender health disparities and the injustices they inflict on women. It shows a negative effect. But these facts in general and in particular can help women continue to fight for accessible health care, advocate for themselves, and improve, and in some cases even save, their own lives.