Insight
Why AI in women’s health needs to start with curiosity
By Morgan Rose, Chief Science Officer, Ema
Women’s pain is complex, often overlapping between physical, emotional, and social dimensions.
Chronic pain affects 70 per cent of female sufferers yet is frequently misdiagnosed or dismissed as psychological (Oh, n.d.; UCL, 2021).
Curiosity is the key to addressing this gap.
By asking thoughtful questions and uncovering connections, AI can move beyond surface symptoms to build trust, foster understanding, and uncover root causes.
This curiosity-driven approach ensures earlier diagnoses, more effective treatments, and care that truly resonates with women’s unique experiences—bridging the gaps traditional healthcare often leaves behind.
Understanding Pain as More Than Physical
Pain isn’t just physical; it encompasses emotional and social dimensions that significantly impact women’s health.
Physical Pain: Women often experience conditions like fibromyalgia and migraines more frequently than men.
These ailments are painful and challenging to diagnose and treat, leading to prolonged suffering.
Biological and hormonal factors significantly influence these conditions.
For example, fluctuations in estrogen levels have been shown to exacerbate pain sensitivity, highlighting the need for sex-specific approaches to treatment (IASP, n.d.; PMC, n.d.).
Research Insight: Studies indicate that women’s pain is more likely to be dismissed or misdiagnosed due to gender biases in healthcare (UCL, 2021).
A curious approach can counteract these biases by delving into specific triggers and experiences.
Asking targeted, open-ended questions can help identify patterns that might be overlooked.
Example Question: “You mentioned frequent migraines—have you noticed if they occur more during certain phases of your menstrual cycle or after stressful events?”
Emotional Pain: Chronic pain often coexists with emotional distress, including depression and anxiety.
Women are twice as likely as men to experience these conditions, which can exacerbate their physical symptoms and create a cycle of suffering (Mayo Clinic, n.d.; Kushner, 2024).
The emotional distress associated with chronic pain often exacerbates the perception of pain, creating a cycle that’s hard to break (Dovepress, 2024).
Research Insight: Emotional pain is frequently underdiagnosed or mischaracterised in women, often overshadowing underlying physical conditions (Mayo Clinic, n.d.; Kushner, 2024).
Addressing both dimensions through curiosity fosters holistic care.
Exploring the emotional context of pain through thoughtful questions can uncover hidden contributors to distress.
Social Pain: Social rejection, isolation, and stigma are significant contributors to women’s pain experiences.
For instance, caregiving responsibilities and societal pressures disproportionately affect women, amplifying their vulnerability to social pain (IASP, n.d.; PMC, 2024).
Societal factors, including gender biases, can lead to women’s pain being dismissed or underestimated by healthcare providers.
This dismissal delays appropriate treatment and contributes to feelings of isolation and helplessness (Psychology Today, 2024).
Research Insight: Social determinants, such as poverty and neighborhood conditions, significantly influence pain intensity, particularly in conditions like breast cancer (PMC, 2024).
Curiosity-driven care can help identify and address these factors. Addressing social pain requires understanding the broader context of a woman’s life.
Curiosity in Practice: Improving Diagnosis and Care
Delayed Diagnosis
Women often face significant delays in receiving diagnoses for chronic pain conditions like endometriosis and pelvic pain (Independent, 2024).
These delays are attributed to biases, normalization of symptoms, and limited access to care (MDU, 2024).
How Curiosity Changes the Game
Curiosity goes beyond simply asking questions—it’s about exploring someone’s unique challenges and identifying connections they might not see themselves.
Research shows that curiosity-driven approaches foster trust, enhance engagement, and lead to more accurate diagnoses in healthcare.
They are designed with curiosity at its core, can uncover root causes, and provide meaningful support in women’s health. Here’s how:
1. Asking the Right Questions to Build Trust
A curious approach encourages open dialogue, helping women feel understood and validated.
Studies reveal that patients who feel heard are more likely to share critical information, leading to better outcomes.
- “You mentioned fatigue—do you notice it more after specific activities or during certain times of the month?” This shows attentiveness and opens the door to uncovering hormonal or lifestyle connections.
2. Uncovering Overlooked Patterns
Curiosity allows AI to identify connections that might not be immediately obvious, such as how diet, stress, and sleep interact to affect overall health.
Research highlights that women often present with complex, multifaceted symptoms that require nuanced exploration.
- Example: “Have you noticed whether your skin flare-ups happen during periods of high stress or poor sleep? Let’s explore the potential links.”
3. Encouraging Reflection for Deeper Insights
Curiosity-driven AI doesn’t just provide answers—it helps women reflect on their habits, symptoms, and patterns.
This reflective process empowers patients to take ownership of their health.
- Example: “What impacts your energy most—your diet, stress, or sleep? Why do you think that is?”
4. Creating Personalised, Actionable Plans
When curiosity informs recommendations, they feel more relevant and actionable. Personalized care has been proven to increase adherence to health advice, improving outcomes.
- Example: “Would you like to start adjusting your hydration or exploring sleep routines? Let’s choose what feels manageable for you.”
5. Supporting Holistic Health
Women’s health is deeply interconnected. Curiosity allows AI to address not just the physical symptoms but the emotional and social factors as well.
- Example: “You mentioned stress and skin health—have you noticed any connections between the two? Let’s explore what might be contributing.”
6. Inspiring Confidence and Action
The right questions can help users discover practical, achievable steps. Curiosity creates those “aha” moments that make users feel capable of making meaningful changes.
- Example: “Have you tried syncing your workouts with your cycle? It could boost your energy and help you feel more in tune with your body. Would you like to explore how to get started?”
7. Keeping the Conversation Going
Curiosity also helps AI maintain long-term engagement because users feel their progress matters. They’re more likely to return and keep exploring solutions.
- Example: “Let’s check in next week to see how those hydration tips worked for you. What might you notice after trying them for a few days?”
The Bigger Picture
Curiosity isn’t just a nice to have; it’s essential for addressing the complexities of women’s health.
It builds trust, keeps users engaged, and helps uncover connections that lead to meaningful solutions.
By focusing on the person behind the pain—and asking thoughtful, open-ended questions—AI can bridge the gaps that traditional healthcare often leaves behind.
When AI tools like Ema approach women’s health curiously, they move beyond simply tracking symptoms.
They create a space where women feel seen, heard, and empowered to take control of their health—physically, emotionally, and socially.
Why This Matters
Women’s health has long been underserved, with too many tools and platforms treating it as one-dimensional.
By making curiosity the foundation of AI interactions, we can change that.
Curiosity doesn’t just solve problems—it helps women feel connected to their health in a way that’s personal, honest, and empowering.
That’s the kind of change we need.
Morgan Rose is a Certified Nurse Midwife, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant with over a decade of experience supporting women’s health. As the Chief Science Officer at Ema, Morgan combines her expertise with her passion for empowering women. She lives with her spunky daughter and their beloved dog in New York City.
References
- Dovepress. (2024). The connection between emotional distress and chronic pain. Retrieved from www.dovepress.com
- Independent. (2024). One in Three Women with Female Health Conditions Forced to Wait Three Years for Diagnosis. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/women-health-diagnosis-delay-treatment-b2280080.html
- International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). (n.d.). Pain in Women. Retrieved from https://www.iasp-pain.org/advocacy/global-year/pain-in-women/
- Kushner, D. (2024). How Does Endometriosis Impact Mental Health?. Retrieved from https://www.drdanielkushner.com/blog/how-does-endometriosis-impact-mental-health
- Mayo Clinic. (n.d.). Depression in Women: Understanding the Gender Gap. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression/art-20047725
- MDU. (2024). Avoiding Diagnosis Delays in Endometriosis. Retrieved from https://www.themdu.com/guidance-and-advice/latest-updates-and-advice/avoiding-diagnosis-delays-in-endometriosis
- PMC. (2024). Social Disparities of Pain and Pain Intensity Among Women Diagnosed with Early Stage Breast Cancer. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8861323/
- Psychology Today. (2024). How gender bias affects the perception and treatment of women’s pain. Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com
- UCL. (2021). Analysis: Women’s Pain is Routinely Underestimated. Retrieved from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/apr/analysis-womens-pain-routinely-underestimated-and-gender-stereotypes-are-blame
The Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has warned against “financial half measures” on women’s health as the government published its response to the report.
Ministers launched the renewed Women’s Health Strategy in April after the committee’s March report concluded it was not convinced that the menstrual and gynaecological needs of young women and girls had been sufficiently prioritised in wider healthcare reforms.
It followed the committee’s 2024 “medical misogyny” report, which found women with painful reproductive health conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and heavy menstrual bleeding were frequently finding their symptoms “normalised” and their “pain dismissed” when seeking help.
In both reports, MPs called on the government to recognise the benefits of increased investment in early diagnosis and treatment of women’s reproductive health conditions and provide additional funding needed to transform the support available to millions of women.
In its response, published on 26 May as a command paper, the Department of Health and Social Care outlined action on reducing gynae waiting times, ensuring procedures are conducted with women’s full consent and adequate pain relief, and improving access to contraception for menstrual healthcare in line with the committee’s recommendations.
It said: “The government agrees with the committee’s overarching findings and recommendations for improving women’s health outcomes and experiences.
“We acknowledge the impact that menstrual health conditions can have on women’s lives, relationships, and participation in education and the workforce.
“We recognise that more needs to be done to support women with menstrual health conditions, particularly around listening to women, improving information and education, and enhancing patient experience.”
However, there was no commitment to increase school nurse provision, no measurable actions and targets on countering online misinformation, no new commitments to end inappropriate censorship of women’s online health content, and no further initiatives on tackling racial discrimination or understanding the menstrual wellbeing needs of young disabled and Deaf women.
The response comes after analysis by The Times suggested the government is allocating 60 per cent more funding to its men’s health strategy than to its renewed strategy for women’s health.
Sarah Owen, chair of the Women and Equalities Committee and Labour MP, said: “WEC’s 2024 ‘medical misogyny’ report warned 18 months ago of women in unnecessary pain and undiagnosed for years and called on the Government to recognise the benefits of increased investment in early diagnosis and treatment.
“Our follow up report this March cautioned girls’ and women’s health are not being sufficiently prioritised in system-wide NHS reforms, while initiatives which have proven to be successful in reducing waiting lists and improving women’s healthcare access, such as women’s health hubs, risked being scaled back or discontinued.
“While it’s welcome to see a focus on tackling ‘medical misogyny’ in April’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy and an emphasis on women’s voices being heard, this must be backed by adequate funding, not financial half measures, particularly when compared to men’s health.
“Significant questions remain following today’s response publication over the adequacy of investment being provided, including for workforce training, menstrual health education in schools, research and additional ring-fenced funding for women’s health hubs to deliver services within the emerging neighbourhood health framework.
“There are both opportunities and risks when it comes to increasing use of technology in women’s healthcare.
“As the Committee’s report set out, social media companies should be held to account for inappropriate and disgraceful ‘shadow banning’ censorship of important women’s health content and there should be a rigorous approach to tackling the risks from ineffective, unsafe and exploitative for-profit FemTech apps.
“The Government should take the problem of ‘shadow banning’ more seriously.
“A strategy which does not fully address the concerns set out in WEC’s report, alongside measurable actions and timescales, will only scratch the surface of the issues facing women’s health.
“WEC will keep a close eye on progress and continue to push for long overdue tangible change for women and girls.”
An early PET scan after one cycle of chemotherapy may help predict how aggressive breast cancer responds to treatment, a study suggests.
Research led by The Institute of Cancer Research, London and King’s College London suggests that an early scan taken after one cycle of chemotherapy could help predict how well a patient’s cancer will respond to treatment.
The study focused on patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease in which cancer cells lack receptors for the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, as well as the HER2 protein.
Patients with TNBC are usually treated with chemotherapy prior to surgery. While many respond well, residual disease at surgery, typically around six months later, is associated with a significantly poorer prognosis. Identifying people sooner who are unlikely to respond remains a major clinical challenge.
The research explored whether using PET imaging shortly after treatment begins, rather than relying only on MRI scans later in the treatment process, could provide earlier insight into how a patient’s cancer is responding. Twenty-two patients were recruited, with fourteen undergoing FDG-PET scans before treatment and after the first cycle of chemotherapy.
The findings, published in Clinical Cancer Research, showed that changes seen on PET scans after just one cycle of chemotherapy were strongly associated with subsequent response, including whether there was no detectable cancer, known as a complete response, by the end of treatment. Importantly, early PET response showed stronger associations with treatment outcomes than standard mid-treatment MRI scans in this study.
Being able to identify patients who are not responding well at an early stage could allow clinicians to adjust treatment sooner or consider alternative approaches. These findings may also support future strategies to better tailor treatment intensity to individual patients.
The study also compared two types of PET tracers, FDG and FLT, to determine which was most suitable. While both met the study’s technical criteria, FDG-PET was selected for further evaluation due to its better image quality, greater consistency and wider use in clinical practice.
The research also explored how imaging changes after just one cycle of chemotherapy relate to the body’s immune response to treatment. Biopsies taken before and after the first cycle of chemotherapy showed that an increase in immune cells within the tumour was strongly associated with both early PET changes and improved treatment outcomes.
The researchers emphasise that these findings now need to be validated in larger studies. Future work will aim to confirm these results in broader patient groups and explore more accessible imaging approaches, such as ultrasound, alongside PET and MRI.
Sheeba Irshad, professor of cancer immunology at King’s College London and lead of the Breast Cancer Now KCL Research Unit, said:
“In patients who had PET scans both before treatment and after the first cycle, we found that this early scan could predict whether they were likely to achieve a complete response by the end of treatment. These findings highlight the potential of early imaging to guide treatment decisions, and now need to be validated in larger, modern clinical trials.”
Andrew Tutt, professor of breast oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
“Research that helps us determine early who is already benefitting from standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy and who might benefit from clinical trials to find better treatments is vital. This study shows that FDG-PET may have great value in this regard. We hope to be able to design studies that further investigate and validate these findings.”
The study was supported by funding from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Breast Cancer Now, Cancer Research UK, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.
Ki-67, a protein used to measure tumour growth, may also help prevent chromosome errors that drive cancer, a study suggests.
The findings could change how scientists view Ki-67, a marker commonly used in breast cancer and other tumours to assess how quickly cancer cells are growing.
Researchers found the protein may help preserve genome stability by maintaining the structural integrity of centromeres, key parts of chromosomes that help ensure DNA is shared correctly during cell division.
The research was led by professor Paola Vagnarelli at Brunel University of London in collaboration with scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the Technical University of Berlin.
Professor Vagnarelli said: “Doctors already measure Ki-67 to see how aggressive a cancer might be. But our results suggest it is actually helping maintain genome stability.
“That means it may be more than a marker. It could potentially also be a therapeutic target.”
The study examined three proteins that attach to chromosomes during cell division and help rebuild the molecular system that tells each new cell what kind of cell it is.
Every human cell carries identical DNA. What makes a liver cell different from a brain cell is which genes are switched on and which are kept inactive.
When a cell divides, that entire system of switches must be rebuilt. The three proteins involved in this process were Ki-67, Repo-Man and PNUTS.
Vagnarelli’s team developed a method that individually removes each protein from a living cell at the precise point of division. Older techniques could not isolate that moment cleanly.
They found that cells rely on all three proteins to reset themselves after division, but each failed in a different way when removed.
Without PNUTS, gene activity spiralled out of control and thousands of genes switched on at once.
Without Repo-Man, cells escaped safety checkpoints that usually stop damaged or abnormal cells from continuing to divide.
“What we didn’t expect was how clean the separation was,” said Vagnarelli.
Each protein fails in its own specific way. There is no redundancy, no safety net. Which means there are three separate points at which this process can go wrong.
“When the system breaks down, cells can emerge with the wrong number of chromosomes. That condition, called aneuploidy, is seen in disorders such as Down syndrome and in many cancers.
“We also found that these chromosome errors can trigger inflammatory signals inside the cell.”
Aneuploidy means a cell has too many or too few chromosomes, which can disrupt normal growth and function.
Inflammatory signals are chemical messages that can make a cell behave as if it is responding to injury or infection.
“These cells behave almost as if they are under attack,” said Vagnarelli.
“The immune response switches on because the genome is unstable.
“That link between chromosome imbalance and inflammation could help explain patterns we see in several diseases.”
The researchers said the findings may help cancer scientists better understand how chromosome instability, loss of gene regulation and cells dividing before they are ready contribute to tumour growth.
They said understanding the normal machinery that prevents these errors may help researchers find ways to push cancer cells into making mistakes they cannot survive.
“We now have a clearer map of the machinery that resets the cell after division,” said Vagnarelli.
“That knowledge gives us a starting point for thinking about new therapeutic approaches.”
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