News
Shrinking the gender health gap through innovation in clinical trial AI
By Paula Bellostas Muguerza, Global Lead, Healthcare and Life Sciences at Kearney
The lack of female representation in clinical research is finally getting the recognition it deserves as a driving factor of the gender health gap.
With only 7 per cent of healthcare research focused on conditions that exclusively impact women’s health, it’s an area that has frustratingly been overlooked and underfunded for decades.
Clinicians have been forced to make decisions about women’s health based on limited data and male-centric trials.
As a result, women are routinely subjected to missed diagnoses and delayed treatments.
However, like nearly every sector, AI is reshaping healthcare, and if used correctly, there’s a real opportunity to redesign clinical trials, close long-standing gaps, and make research far more inclusive and effective.
Incorporating AI
Unlocking innovation in women’s health, including more diverse women in clinical trials, disaggregating data by sex, redesigning clinical trials with women in mind, and deepening insights on sex differences were all recognised as core principles for improving healthcare policy in the World Economic Forum’s recent “Prescription for Change” white paper, in collaboration with Kearney and the Gates Foundation.
This focus is critical in improving healthcare outcomes for women.
Conditions such as heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, fibroids, and ovarian cysts cost the UK economy approximately £11 billion per year, but fixing the gaps in treatment and trials goes beyond profit – it’s our moral duty.
And to unlock innovation at scale, policymakers should pair regulatory incentives with financing tools like targeted tax credits and dedicated grant programmes.
However, shrinking the gender health gap will take more than good intentions.
Clinical trials still face a range of issues, from under-reported side effects to low female participation. AI can help by improving how data is captured, making trials more inclusive and leading to fairer, higher-quality outcomes.
According to the National Centre for Biotechnology (NCBI), AI’s ability to analyse complex and diverse information allows for an improved understanding of gender differences, leading to more effective treatments for women in the future.
The World Economic Forum’s push to expand inclusion in clinical trials by involving more women highlights the importance of raising awareness among regulators and trial teams.
Inclusion must be prioritised in the early phases of trials, particularly in cardiology and oncology, and extended to underserved groups, including women of colour and post-menopausal women.
Attitudes to inclusion are also moving in the right direction, and AI can help drive that momentum.
By analysing large datasets, advanced algorithms can identify underrepresented women for targeted recruitment, leading to more representative trials.
AI can also review trial protocols to detect potential gender bias and recommend designs that address gender-based differences and women’s specific health needs.
Approach with caution
Paula Bellostas Muguerza
Although AI offers powerful capabilities, it’s not a fail-safe tool, and the need for human oversight has never been more important.
Models trained on biased data risk repeating existing inequalities, especially when sex-based differences in conditions like heart disease, stroke, and neurological disorders are still underrepresented in many datasets, leading to fatal consequences.
In doing so, AI could reinforce the very misconceptions about women’s health it’s meant to correct.
A study by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) found evidence that AI tools are more likely to downplay women’s health issues compared to men’s. The increasing use of AI models by local authorities to supplement the workload of social workers across the country could result in widespread unequal care provision, perpetuating the gender bias.
The recommendation for researchers, clinicians, and developers to enhance sex-disaggregated data is especially relevant here.
Without data that clearly captures sex and gender differences, AI systems can’t be expected to recognise or respond to them accurately.
This requires standardised collection methods and consistent terminology so women’s health signals are properly captured and acted upon.
Healthcare organisations process huge amounts of data containing important clinical information, spread out and stored in different formats.
Improving the way data is captured makes clinical trials more inclusive and produces fairer, higher-quality results.
AI can combine structured and unstructured data, turning clinical records into meaningful and actionable insights.
AI regulation also varies wildly across countries.
The EU’s AI Act is one of the first major attempts to introduce clear rules, but elsewhere, regulation remains patchy.
While pharmaceuticals go through rigorous testing and approval processes, AI-driven tools often slip through regulatory gaps.
That’s why it’s even more important to design inclusive clinical trials from the start, ones that properly capture sex and gender differences and feed better data into these systems from the outset.
Mind the gap
Having reached crisis status, the task of reducing the gender healthcare gap can appear overwhelming.
But despite the scale of the challenge, there are real reasons for optimism.
We’re already seeing progress, and growing pressure from researchers, investors, and campaigners is pushing the system in the right direction.
But progress won’t come from technology alone. Transparency and inclusivity are just as important.
AI systems must be developed through processes that involve patients, clinicians, community advocates, as well as data scientists and engineers.
This kind of collaborative participation will help highlight blind spots, challenge assumptions, and build tools that reflect the complexities of healthcare, ultimately dispelling the one-size-fits-all myth.
If AI is going to play a role in closing the gender health gap, it must be guided by more than innovation.
Yes, we’re making technological breakthroughs, but if they simply replicate the inequities of the past, what use are they?
A new Female Health Hub launched by the English FA will support women and girls in grassroots football in England with trusted advice on health issues affecting play.
The hub brings together expert-backed guidance, practical tools and player insights in one place, giving women and girls practical advice and reassurance on female health in football.
It has four core aims: to help women and girls better understand their bodies and how female health affects performance and participation, to educate players on key health topics and when to seek further advice or support, to provide practical strategies to help navigate common female health challenges, and to help break down taboos and normalise conversations around female health in football.
Users of the hub will also be able to hear directly from members of the England women’s national team, who share their own experiences of navigating female health matters while playing at the highest level of the game.
“Our ambition is to create a game where women and girls can thrive,” said Sue Day, the FA’s director of women’s football.
“To achieve that, it’s essential that players feel supported in environments that understand and respond to their female health needs.
“We’ve heard directly from grassroots players that they want better information and support around female health, but that they often don’t know where to find it.
“The launch of the Female Health Hub marks an important step in changing the landscape.
“We want every player to feel confident in her own skin and supported without judgment, so she can feel empowered by her body, rather than held back by it.”
The platform was launched following research conducted by the FA that highlighted the need for better education and support around female health in football.
According to the FA, 88 per cent of adult players surveyed said their menstrual cycle has an impact on their ability to train or play, but 86 per cent reported they had never received education about the menstrual cycle in relation to football performance and training.
The research also found 64 per cent of women experience issues related to sports bras or breast health while playing football, despite sports bras being considered one of the most important pieces of playing kit.
Players also expressed strong interest in learning more about injury prevention, at 87 per cent, nutrition, at 84 per cent, and mental health, at 77 per cent, in relation to female health.
The first phase of the Female Health Hub focuses on three of the most requested topics: menstrual health, breast health and injury resilience, with further content to follow, including nutrition and pelvic health guidance.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has referred to the women’s health strategy as a ‘missed opportunity’ to address maternity services.
The renewed strategy was released by the government this week, with the aim of putting women’s experiences at the centre of care and ensuring they are “better heard and served”.
However, the government stated that because of ongoing investigations into maternity services across the country, the strategy “does not seek to address safety in maternity and neonatal services”.
The RCM described this as a “missed opportunity” and urged the government to ensure that, following the inquiries, maternity is placed “at the very heart” of the strategy.
Gill Walton, RCM chief executive, said the college was “deeply disappointed” that maternity services “do not feature as a headline priority” in the renewed strategy.
She said: “This is a significant missed opportunity and one that is very difficult to understand.
“Pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period are not a footnote in women’s health – they are one of the most significant and consequential phases of a woman’s life.
“A strategy that treats maternity as an afterthought is not truly a women’s health strategy at all. It is exactly the kind of thinking that has allowed maternity services to reach the point they are at today.”
Walton acknowledged that the strategy contained commitments on ensuring women’s voices shape their care, on supporting families through pregnancy loss and on the principle that services should be held accountable when they fail to listen to women.
She added: “But a strategy that addresses one part of women’s health while leaving maternity care behind is only doing half the job.”
Walton urged the government to ensure that this is addressed when the ongoing investigations into maternity care conclude, with any recommendations placed “at the very heart of this strategy with the seriousness and urgency that women, families and midwives deserve”.
In the foreword to the renewed plans, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting referred to the ongoing independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation as action being taken by the government to improve safety in maternity services.
The strategy also refers to the new National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by Streeting, which aims to help deliver “safer, more equitable care” for women, babies and families.
The foreword said that, because of ongoing initiatives, it was “important that this work continues without restriction and that the government can properly respond to the findings”.
It added: “This renewed women’s health strategy therefore does not seek to address safety in maternity and neonatal services other than that related to women’s health before and during pregnancy and the actions we are taking immediately to improve maternity and neonatal care.”
The strategy does, however, include plans to prioritise health education in schools, communities and healthcare settings to “empower women” with the “knowledge and tools they need to help control their fertility” and “prepare for the best pregnancy outcomes.
It also promises to provide women with access to “safe and high-quality contraception, abortion care, fertility services, preconception care and support after pregnancy loss in convenient settings.
Article produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Jeen Health
For the majority of couples planning a pregnancy, genetic testing is not something they think about until a problem arises.
Pre-conception genetic carrier screening challenges this approach by identifying risk before pregnancy begins.
As panel sizes have grown and at-home testing options have become widely available, carrier screening is transitioning from a niche clinical referral into a mainstream component of reproductive planning.
What Carrier Screening Tests For
Being a carrier of a genetic condition means carrying one copy of a variant in a gene associated with that condition, without being affected by it.
In most cases, carriers are entirely unaware of their status.
The clinical significance of carrier status emerges when both members of a couple carry a variant in the same gene: in this scenario, each pregnancy carries a one in four chance of resulting in a child who inherits two copies of the variant and is affected by the condition.
The conditions most frequently included in expanded carrier screening panels include cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), fragile X syndrome, sickle cell disease, and a range of metabolic and enzyme deficiency disorders.
The Beacon 787 carrier test, offered by Jeen Health, screens for 787 conditions from a single sample, making it one of the most comprehensive panels currently available to UK families.
Who Is Most Likely to Benefit
Any couple planning a pregnancy can consider carrier screening. It is particularly relevant for:
- Couples with a family history of a known inherited condition
- Those from populations with higher carrier frequencies for specific conditions, including Ashkenazi Jewish, South Asian and African communities
- Couples pursuing fertility treatment, where genetic information informs treatment planning
- Those who wish to have the most complete picture of their reproductive health before conception
Importantly, being a carrier of a condition does not mean a child will be affected. It means there is a defined statistical risk that can be quantified, discussed and planned for with appropriate clinical support.
How the Test Is Performed
Carrier screening is typically carried out on a blood or saliva sample.
For at-home options such as the testing offered by Jeen Health, a cheek swab collection kit is dispatched to the patient, the sample is returned by post, and results are delivered digitally within a defined turnaround period.
In-clinic carrier testing may use a blood draw and provides the advantage of immediate access to a clinical consultation at the point of result delivery.
London Pregnancy Clinic offers genetics counselling through its partnership with Jeen Health, allowing couples to receive and contextualise carrier test results with expert support.
Genetic counselling before and after testing is recommended by Genomics England as a standard component of any genomic testing pathway.
What Happens If Both Partners Are Carriers
If both partners are identified as carriers for the same autosomal recessive condition, they are typically offered further counselling to discuss their options.
These may include proceeding naturally with an awareness of the risk, using prenatal diagnosis (CVS or amniocentesis) during pregnancy to test the fetus, or pursuing preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) in the context of IVF, which allows unaffected embryos to be selected before transfer.
The purpose of identifying carrier status before pregnancy is to give couples time to consider these options without the added pressure of an ongoing pregnancy.
Knowledge of carrier status does not remove reproductive choices; it expands the information available when making them.
The Role of Pre-Conception Services
Carrier screening sits within a broader category of pre-conception care that includes fertility assessments, general health optimisation and, where relevant, management of existing conditions before pregnancy begins.
London Pregnancy Clinic offers pre-conception services encompassing fertility investigations, genetics counselling and carrier testing as part of an integrated 0th trimester approach, allowing couples to address genetic and clinical risk factors before their pregnancy starts rather than after.
Disclaimer: This article is produced for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Clinical guidance referenced reflects published NHS, NICE and RCOG standards as at March 2026. Individual circumstances vary; readers are advised to consult a qualified healthcare professional before acting on any information in this article.
This piece was produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Jeen Health, which provided background clinical information for editorial purposes.
Hyperlinks to external sources are included for reference only and do not represent an endorsement of any product, service or organisation.
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