Women’s healthcare funding in USA is still not enough reportedly

 
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary argued women’s health care has not received proper funding and research, attributing the lack of attention to the industry’s male-dominated culture.

“It does feel like the system just doesn’t think specifically about the very particular needs of women’s bodies and doesn’t do enough research into this,” Makary told Politico White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns on an episode of “The Conversation” podcast, which was taped on Wednesday.

Makary has taken a personal interest in hormone therapy during his tenure as FDA chief. He convened a FDA panel discussion earlier this month on hormone therapy for menopausal women to consider “treatments, education, and comprehensive care beyond symptom management.” “We got hormone replacement therapy wrong for 22 years, scaring women, saying that, you know, ‘it increases your risk of dying of breast cancer’ when no clinical trial has ever supported that finding,” Makary told Burns. “So look, we wanna have a healthy discourse and debate.”

The panel recommended removing the so-called black box warning labels on menopause treatments, arguing they “scare women” and overstate risk.

A study conducted by the Women’s Health Institute in 2002 initially sparked controversy over hormone therapy treatment for menopausal and perimenopausal women. Researchers halted the study over concerns that hormone therapy treatment increased risk of cancer and stroke, but more recent studies found the risks to be minimal.

Makary said they are planning to decide whether to remove the labels, and the agency is conducting a public comment period on the issue.

“I wanna do this as a team. I’ve got my own opinion on it, which I think it’s not a secret, but the way to do these things is to go through the proper process, get all the public input, get it summarized, listen to the stakeholder groups, and then have a group make that decision,” Makary said.

Philanthropic organizations and global partnerships complement government funding by identifying and addressing critical priorities in healthcare. In this issue, Ru-fong Joanne Cheng and Mark A. Barone from the Gates Foundation’s Women’s Health Innovations team outline how they aim to close healthcare funding gaps by increasing R&D funding for women’s health and by shaping policies that prioritize underfunded areas. Similarly, the Global Alliance for Women’s Health provides valuable frameworks to guide investments and engage with experts in the women’s health space.

A 2024 report from the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute determined that closing investment gaps in women’s healthcare could boost the global economy $1 trillion annually by 2040, demonstrating the vast economic potential of equitable healthcare funding.