How Female Health is Still Under-Researched: Why It Matters for Young Women Today

When we think of modern medicine, we often imagine advanced technology, groundbreaking research, and life-saving discoveries that benefit everyone equally. Yet, beneath the surface of progress lies a quiet but undeniable truth: women’s health remains significantly under-researched, underrepresented, and misunderstood in the medical field and young women are paying the price. Medicine has made extraordinary advancements in recent years AI diagnostics, life-saving vaccines, and groundbreaking treatments. Yet one major problem

persists: the female body is still under-researched in modern science. This isn’t just a gap in knowledge. It’s a gap that puts women’s health at risk every day. 

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a 2022 report, women continue to be underrepresented in clinical trials, especially in fields like cardiology, neurology, and pharmacology. Despite efforts by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to improve inclusion, many studies still default to male subjects leaving women vulnerable to misdiagnosis, ineffective treatments, and unknown side effects. 

Source: GAO 2022 Report – NIH Inclusion Policies 

The Facts You Can’t Ignore:

Heart Disease: 

The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that women often experience different heart attack symptoms than men nausea, fatigue, and jaw pain rather than sharp chest pain. Yet historically, medical research has focused on male heart attack symptoms, leading to women being underdiagnosed and at higher risk. 

Source: American Heart Association – Heart Attack Symptoms in Women 

Medications: 

The FDA has acknowledged that between 1997 and 2000, 8 out of 10 prescription drugs withdrawn from the U.S. market posed greater health risks to women. This is because these drugs were primarily tested on male bodies, ignoring how women’s hormones and metabolism affect drug absorption and side effects. 

Source: FDA – Gender Differences in Drug Reactions 

Chronic Illness: Endometriosis 

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that 1 in 10 women worldwide suffers from endometriosis, yet it takes an average of 7-10 years to receive a proper diagnosis due to medical neglect and normalization of women’s pain. 

Source: WHO – Endometriosis Factsheet

Why This Matters to Gen Z Girls: 

This isn’t an issue reserved for future policymakers — it affects young women right now. Whether it’s birth control, mental health, autoimmune disorders, or sports medicine, healthcare systems are still operating on outdated, male-centered research. 

According to Women’s Health Research at Northwestern University, sex as a biological variable is still not fully integrated in research despite policy pushes from NIH and FDA.

Source: Women's Health Research Institute at Northwestern University 

Why Gen Z Should Care: 

● Learn your body. 

● Challenge lazy diagnoses. 

● Support research equality. 

● Ask: Has this treatment been tested on people like me? 

Until women’s bodies are studied with the same seriousness as men’s, medicine cannot fully serve half the population. 

“Women’s health research isn’t just women’s health. It’s human health.” 

— Women's Health Research Institute 

Imagine if medicine had always centered the female body. Imagine how many diseases would already have cures, how many women wouldn’t have had to suffer silently. 

Now imagine what could change if Gen Z refuses to stay silent. 

What would you want to see change in women’s healthcare? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and share them below.