Why women’s brain health is the key infrastructure of equality

By Dr Emilė Radytė, CEO and co-founder, Samphire Neuroscience

In the lead up to International Women’s Day 2026, women’s health leaders, experts and insiders explore the critical challenges shaping the future of women’s health

International Women’s Day 2026 centres on a simple idea: Give To Gain.

In women’s health, one of the most overlooked opportunities to “give” – strategically, economically, and scientifically – is in brain health.

For decades, women’s health has been framed primarily in reproductive terms.

But the symptoms that most consistently affect women’s ability to participate fully in work and leadership are neurological: mood disruption, cognitive fog, sleep disturbance, and pain sensitivity.

These are brain-mediated phenomena.

Across the menstrual cycle, hormonal fluctuations modulate neural circuits involved in emotion regulation, executive function, and pain processing.

For many women, these shifts are manageable. For others, they are disruptive.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) alone affects around 90 per cent of women, and for a significant proportion it interferes with concentration, decision-making, mood stability, and productivity every month.

Yet PMS remains under-prioritized in medical training and underfunded in research.

The economic implications are substantial.

The McKinsey Health Institute estimates that closing the women’s health gap could add at least $1 trillion annually to global GDP by 2040.

A 2025 McKinsey analysis identified PMS as the second-largest economic opportunity in women’s health, valued at $115 billion per year – reflecting both unmet clinical need and productivity loss.

When women experience cyclical cognitive and mood disruption without adequate support, the consequences accumulate.

Absenteeism may be visible, but reduced performance, slowed advancement, and quiet attrition are harder to measure – but no less real.

If we want to talk seriously about gender equality in leadership and economic participation, we cannot ignore the organ that governs performance: the brain.

The situation often intensifies during perimenopause, which can begin as early as the mid-30s.

Hormonal volatility increases; premenstrual symptoms may become more severe and less predictable; brain fog and sleep disruption compound.

Many women navigating this stage are in senior roles – yet health infrastructure rarely reflects the neurological reality of this life phase.

This is where Give To Gain becomes more than a slogan:

• Giving funding to research in female neurobiology is not charity – it is economic acceleration.
• Giving legitimacy to brain-based menstrual symptoms is not accommodation – it is workforce strategy.
• Giving women access to evidence-based, non-hormonal tools designed around their neurobiology is structural progress.

At Samphire Neuroscience, our work sits at this intersection of women’s health and the brain.

We develop wearable neurotechnology designed to modulate neural networks involved in pain and mood regulation.

In the UK and EU, our CE-marked device Nettle™ is regulated as a medical device.

In North America, Lutea™  is focused on supporting women’s wellbeing across their menstrual cycle.

Both are grounded in decades of research into non-invasive brain stimulation and its effects on cortical networks.

For those interested in the underlying research, our clinical rationale and supporting studies are outlined in detail in our science and research overview.

Importantly, women’s health will – and should – remain multi-modal.

Pharmaceuticals, behavioural therapies, lifestyle interventions, digital tools, and neurotechnology all have roles to play.

What women really want is options. But until we center the brain in the conversation, we risk continuing to treat symptoms without addressing the neural mechanisms that shape them.

McKinsey’s broader Women in the Workplace research consistently shows that representation declines at every stage of the leadership pipeline.

Health-related attrition is rarely isolated cleanly in those reports, but it is embedded within them.

When women spend, on average, 25 per cent more of their lives in poor health than men, as McKinsey has also reported, the leadership gap cannot be separated from the health gap.

We cannot design equitable systems while ignoring neurobiology.

International Women’s Day has always been about structural change.

This year’s theme is a reminder that investment – intellectual, clinical, and commercial – multiplies.

• Give serious research to women’s brain health.
• Give capital to founders building evidence-based solutions.
• Give employers the framework to understand cyclical cognitive shifts.
• Give women tools that reflect how their brains actually function.

The gain is not abstract, it is measurable in retention, productivity, leadership continuity, and economic growth.

When women’s brains are supported, participation strengthens; when participation strengthens, economies grow; when economies grow, equality becomes durable.

Giving to women’s brain health is not symbolic, it is foundational – and the return is shared across all.