Policymaker

Women spend 25 per cent more of their lives in poor health than men due in part to disproportionately low investment, a new report has revealed. Collectively, women lose around 75 million years of healthy life each year, equivalent to a week of health lost per woman annually, the report found. Women and girls make [...]

Addressing women's health could unlock US$100bn by 2030 in the US alone, a new report has found. The World Economic Forum has published its Women's Health Investment Outlook to highlight undercapitalised opportunities in women's health. A Boston Consulting Group analysis cited in the report estimates that treating four major conditions that disproportionately affect women could [...]

China's birth rate has hit a record low in 2025, deepening a demographic crisis. Births dropped to 5.6 per 1,000 people in 2025, down from 6.4 in 2023, the lowest on record, according to Wind Information data dating to the 1950s. About 7.9 million babies were born last year, sharply fewer than 9.5 million a [...]

Vancouver forum brings policy, industry and health leaders together to tap Canada's US$37bn femtech opportunity. The 2025 Femtech Canada Forum brought together representatives from policy, academia, industry and global health organisations to address what organisers describe as a US$37bn economic opportunity for Canada's economy through women's health technology. Femtech Canada announced it will join the [...]

Alarming increases in HIV diagnoses among women require urgent government focus, with new cases rising 33 per cent between 2019 and 2024, MPs have warned. Sexual health services are "extremely stretched" with funding "pared to the bone", threatening the UK's ability to meet the United Nations AIDS 2030 zero transmission target, according to the Women [...]

Nearly half of countries lack national policies or clinical guidance for endometriosis care, a new global review has revealed. Endometriosis affects about one in ten women and girls worldwide. Across 194 WHO member states, researchers found striking disparities in care. More than a quarter of countries have no publicly available clinical recommendations, and only 7 [...]

By Justyna Strzeszynska, founder of menstrual health platform Joii The Government’s announcement that it will renew the Women’s Health Strategy is, on the surface, good news. The original strategy in 2022 was historic - the first time women’s health had been acknowledged as something that required its own plan. It raised awareness, started [...]

The Women’s Health Ambassador for England, Dame Lesley Regan, has promised to overhaul the government’s 10-year strategy, as she revealed the scale and cost of the UK’s gender health gap three years on. Speaking at Women’s Health Week in London earlier this month, Regan revealed that Health Secretary Wes Streeting has tasked her with “revamping” [...]

An independent inquiry will be launched into Leeds maternity services following a parent-led campaign over care failures stretching back 14 years. Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was deeply concerned about problems at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, calling it “a real outlier” for perinatal mortality — deaths around the time of birth — compared [...]

The financial impact of breast cancer on the UK economy is projected to rise by nearly a third to £4.2bn within 25 years, new analysis warns. The disease is expected to cost between £3.2bn and £3.5bn in 2025, covering NHS diagnosis and treatment as well as lost productivity when patients or carers cannot work. A [...]