Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is world renowned for its dedication to cutting edge medical research and medical care, and its devotion to strengthening the position of women. Hadassah is deeply concerned by the tremendous gaps in knowledge regarding women’s biology, health, and disease and by the scarcity of research that is being done to fill those gaps.
The study of sex-based biology and of differences between sex and gender in the development and progression of disease is in its infancy now. A multitude of diseases, including heart disease, our number one killer, are often misdiagnosed or overlooked entirely in women. Reasons for this great deficit in medical knowledge include the exclusion of women from research studies and limited funding for studies of health, epidemiology, disease, and pharmaceuticals that account for sex and gender differences. Indeed, funding for the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health, and other women’s health offices within the government has been limited and has not even kept pace with inflation. Research findings have not been adequately explained and publicized.
To remove these barriers and further medical advancement in women’s health, Hadassah calls upon the U.S. Government:
- to increase the study of sex and gender differences in medicine and promote study of women’s health issues;
- to increase funding to the Office of Research on Women’s Health and other offices of women’s health within the government;
- to encourage more women to enroll in clinical trials;
- to increase public awareness of women’s health issues; and
- to encourage women to enter the field of biomedical research and promote their success.