Mental health
What the NHS 10-Year Health Plan means for women and where it “falls short”
The government’s 10-year plan for the NHS promises bold transformation, with a move towards digital innovation, and more focus on prevention over treatment, but does it go far enough to address the UK’s gender health gap?
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has revealed his vision for the UK’s public healthcare system, promising to transform the NHS over the next decade, in the government’s Fit for the Future report.
From a renewed focus on maternity care, to ambitions to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040, the government says its 10-year plan will play a fundamental role in delivering its commitment to women’s health “never again being ignored”.
Currently, the UK has the largest gender health gap in the G20, with the average woman spending nearly a quarter of her life in poor health compared to a fifth for men.
Yet while the plan has been described as a “strong foundation”, crucial details about how its promises will be delivered are yet to be published, and some say the lack of specific action to address the gender health gap mean it may “fall short” for women.
Community, prevention and digitisation— what the government has promised
The NHS 10 year plan is underpinned by three key pillars; a move from hospital to community, sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital.
A focus on prevention, rather than sickness, promises to deliver better access to screening, and allow better use of health data to enable more predictive and pre-emptive care.
Plans to increase uptake of HPV vaccinations aim to help the NHS reach its ambitious target of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040. Meanwhile, universal newborn genomic testing and an introduction to polygenic risk scoring will be used to identify potential risks to child and maternal health early and help predict susceptibility to diseases.
The government has also committed to a national independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services, setting out plans for the establishment of a national maternity and neonatal taskforce, chaired by the Secretary of State, as well as a national action plan co-produced with bereaved families.
Placing more focus on neighbourhood health centres, rather than hospital treatment, will enable more people to access health services closer to home, according to the proposals, while an increased focus on the digitalisation of the NHS aims to make services faster, more convenient, and more personalised.
All patients will gain access to a single, digital health record, and the NHS app will be expanded allowing patients to book appointments, manage long-term conditions, reproductive health and medications, and coordinate care for children or elderly family members.
My Children, a digital alternative to what has been known for decades in maternity care as the ‘red book’ also aims to make it easier to manage children’s healthcare and medical records.
Speaking following the publication of the plan on Thursday 3 July, Streeting described this as a “meaningful advancement”, giving parents “practical tools when they need them most”.
“This isn’t just about convenience… It’s about recognising the realities of modern parenthood and removing unnecessary barriers to good healthcare,” he said.
“From offering timely, advice about feeding and weaning in those first months to providing guidance about adolescent mental health years later, this digital companion adapts to your family’s changing needs.”
Where the plan “falls short” on women’s health
The plan’s proposals for maternity care have been welcomed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), with many women not receiving the “personalised, high-quality care they deserve”.
However, president, Professor Ranee Thakar, has suggested it lacks clarity on how it will address many of the the issues contributing to the gender health gap.
“While the plan lays strong foundations, it falls short in pledging to eliminate the gender health gap that is costing women years of life and good health,” Prof Thakar said in statement on Thursday.
“Today’s plan must mark a move away from treating women’s health as a collection of niche issues towards offering women excellent, joined-up care across their life course, with investment in the women’s health workforce, Femtech and research.”
Despite the fact that one in three women in the UK will suffer from a reproductive or gynaecological problem, less than 2.5 per cent of publicly funded research is dedicated solely to reproductive health.
Thakar added: “A huge opportunity may be missed without a clear focus on delivering better for women. We would like to see the Women’s Health Strategy for England reset quickly, to work alongside the 10-Year Plan in driving improvements in women’s health access, experiences and outcomes, particularly for minority ethnic women and those in the most socially deprived areas.”
The Women’s Health Strategy, developed and published in 2022, promised to address the inequalities in the health and care system, by providing better care for menstrual and gynaecological conditions, expanding women’s health hubs, improving maternity care and accelerating research into women’s health.
Some have been critical of the roll out of the strategy, accusing the former Conservative government of using it as a “short-term vote winner” and failing to fund it properly. A total of £25m was allocated to fund one-stop-shop women’s health hubs across the country for two years, compared to £240m which was spent on the Rwanda deportation scheme.
The role of women’s health hubs
The RCOG has called for the acceleration of women’s health hubs, which its believes could play a “crucial role” in establishing the neighbourhood care model which Streeting has promised in his 10-year plan.
Hubs bring healthcare services together, making the referral process easier and allowing women to see see different specialists, therapists and diagnostic teams under one roof, which can be beneficial for those managing complex symptoms or chronic health issues.
However according to Dr Nikki Kanani, a GP specialising in women’s health and a former director of primary care for NHS England, many are still in the pilot stage and services are stretched due to a lack of healthcare professionals trained in women’s health.
“What we need to do is follow through on the commitment of the strategy, to understand what good looks like and invest in scaling that,” she tells Femtech World.
“We need to treat hubs as a core part of the system, not just a side project,” she tells Femtech World.
“We need to understand what good looks like and invest in scaling that. That needs to be clearly set out with nationally-protected funding and ICB accountability. We need to upscale across primary care, we need roles that reflect the breadth of the knowledge that’s needed, and we need protected time for clinicians to work in these spaces.”
Dr Kanani also believes hubs also need to move beyond focusing on reproductive issues to other areas of healthcare where women are traditonally “dismissed” and “deprioritised”, such as cardiovascular care and mental health services.
Alongside this, incentivised targets for gender and ethnicity gaps in diagnosis, referrals and outcomes, as well as system-wide women’s health leads, could be practical next steps to ensure women’s health is prioritised across the NHS, Dr Kanani says.
Increased investment in private innovators
The government has promised to embrace technologies such as AI, genomics, wearables and robotics, to improve clinical outcomes and reduce clinician workload, which could see a shift towards more public-private partnerships in the NHS and more investment in private innovators.
Dr Kanani says this would be “welcome”, but innovators seeking NHS partnerships, especially in the women’s health space, will need to consider factors such as regulator requirements, responsible data-gathering and the practicalities of training clinicians.
“Any femtech company innovating a point of care solution should be thinking not just of their tool, but also how their tool improves decision-making, documentation and communication, she says.
“We can roll out thousands of tools, but frontline clinicians are understandably time-poor. Part of your job as a responsible innovator, is to say ‘here is my solution, let’s train you and make sure it’s easy to use and deploy’.”
Equity needs more than strategy
The promises of the 10-year plan are bold and ambitious, but how effective it will be— especially for women— remains to be seen.
A planned chapter explaining how the proposed changes would be delivered was not published alongside the rest of the plan on Thursday, and is now expected later this year.
Dr Kanani says how the plan is delivered will be crucial in determining how far it goes to improve women’s healthcare.
“There are some important steps in the 10-year plan, but health equity for women, particularly those from minoritised, marginalised and underserved communities, won’t be achieved through strategy alone. We need a really deep, system-wide culture shift,” she says.
“Equity needs more than just the narrative of equal access, it needs tailored design. Care models, research, workforce, all need to be actively built around these women and communities.”
Dr Kanani adds: “It could be transformational for women, but only if it’s designed intentionally around the realities of women’s lives.”
Yoga and omega-3 supplements may be as effective as talking therapies for pregnancy depression, a major review suggests.
Globally, nearly one in three pregnant women experience depression, but most receive no treatment.
When support is available, women are often directed towards talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, and mindfulness.
CBT is a structured talking therapy that helps people identify and change patterns of thought and behaviour affecting their mental health.
The review examined 115 clinical trials involving more than 12,000 participants across 30 countries.
It found that yoga, massage, omega-3 supplements and bright light therapy were broadly as effective as talking therapies at reducing depression symptoms during pregnancy.
Bright light therapy involves controlled exposure to bright light and is sometimes used to treat mood conditions.
The findings point to the importance of social support and increased connection, as all these approaches offer some element of contact or guided support.
Led by King’s College London, the research brought together trial evidence across every type and format of treatment for antenatal depression under a common framework.
Antenatal depression is depression that occurs during pregnancy.
The study was conducted as part of HappyMums, a European consortium led by the University of Milan that aims to improve mental health support during pregnancy and after birth.
Carmine Pariante, professor of biological psychiatry, said: “This is the most comprehensive analysis of treatments for depression in pregnancy ever conducted, and the findings should prompt a rethink of how we support women during this critical period.
“The evidence is clear that there is no single best approach. What matters is that women have access to a range of options, and that clinicians feel equipped to offer them.”
The researchers said yoga and omega-3 supplements could be legitimate treatment options, rather than stopgaps, for women on waiting lists or those who struggle to access mental health support.
However, the studies differed considerably in design, sample size and how results were measured, so the findings should be interpreted with care.
The team said non-psychological approaches could help women cope with long waits for care without ruling out other treatments alongside them.
Digital and online interventions, including apps and telephone-based support, were also found to be as effective as face-to-face treatment.
Researchers said this could affect how antenatal depression is managed, particularly for women who cannot travel or face long waits for in-person care.
The team found no randomised controlled trials of pharmaceutical treatments for antenatal depression, despite antidepressants being widely prescribed for depression outside pregnancy.
A randomised controlled trial is a study in which participants are randomly assigned to different treatment groups, allowing researchers to compare outcomes more fairly.
Evidence for drug treatment during pregnancy therefore relies on indirect research rather than trials carried out during pregnancy, reflecting long-standing caution around testing medicines in pregnant populations.
NICE guidelines recommend antidepressants for moderate to severe depression in pregnancy, while evidence from outside formal pregnancy trials suggests they can be safe and effective.
However, the researchers said trials are still needed, particularly for women who cannot access or engage with other forms of support.
Riddhi Laijawala, trial manager and PhD student, said: “Depression in pregnancy is common, but it is not inevitable, and it is treatable. What this review shows is that the options available to women are broader than many people realise.
“A yoga class, music therapy, or an online programme may not sound like clinical treatment, but the evidence suggests they can make a real difference, and for many women they may be easier (and quicker) to access than a course of therapy.”
Depression during pregnancy affects an estimated 28.5 per cent of pregnant people worldwide, but only around one in five receives appropriate and timely treatment.
The team said closing this treatment gap should be a priority for health systems because the condition can affect both parent and child.
The HappyMums project is supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
Nearly six in ten young women get health and wellness advice from influencers, new research shows.
Women aged 18 to 29 were more likely than young men to use online influencers for health information.
The topics included beauty, alternative medicine, mental health, weight loss and fitness.
The Pew Research study found that 57 per cent of women aged 18 to 29 said they get health and wellness information from online influencers, 10 percentage points higher than young men.
While Americans still mostly rely on healthcare providers, the research suggests social media influencers also play a major role in how young people find health advice.
Among women who get health and wellness information from influencers, 51 per cent said they often hear about beauty and appearance, compared with 18 per cent of men.
Young women were also around twice as likely as young men to say they see content about alternative medicine, meaning treatments or health practices used outside mainstream medical care.
A third or more of both young men and young women said they often hear about mental health and weight loss from influencers.
Around half or more of both groups said they often see fitness content.
When asked why they seek health and wellness information from influencers, around half of young women said they wanted to make a change to their health or lifestyle.
That compared with 37 per cent of young men.
The research also found that 23 per cent of young women said hearing from people who share their background or beliefs was one reason they used influencers, compared with 14 per cent of young men.
A further 19 per cent of young women said they learnt about things they did not want to ask their doctor, compared with 10 per cent of young men.
Cosmetic procedures may become addiction-like for some women, with low body esteem and problematic social media use linked to higher risk, new research suggests.
A study of 1,614 women aged 25 to 71 found that one in five who had undergone treatments met the threshold for moderate to severe risk of addictive cosmetic procedure use.
Low body esteem and problematic social media use emerged as the strongest risk factors.
Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health examined what they described as addictive cosmetic procedure use, or ACPU, among Jewish Israeli women.
ACPU refers to repeated cosmetic treatment behaviour that may resemble addiction, including feeling unable to stop, continuing despite negative effects or craving further procedures.
The study was led by Vera Skvirsky alongside Uri Lifshin, Dvora Shmulewitz and Mario Mikulincer, from the department of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health.
The researchers surveyed women from the general population rather than focusing only on patients at cosmetic clinics.
Among women who had undergone cosmetic procedures, 20 per cent met the threshold for moderate to severe lifetime risk, while more than 15 per cent reported symptoms within the previous year.
Across the full sample, nearly nine per cent of women showed moderate to severe signs of problematic cosmetic procedure use.
The researchers adapted questions based on mental health criteria used to assess substance-related disorders.
Participants were asked whether they had tried unsuccessfully to stop having cosmetic procedures, felt compelled to continue despite negative consequences or experienced cravings linked to treatment.
Previous research has linked cosmetic procedures with body-image concerns and body dysmorphic disorder.
Body dysmorphic disorder is a mental health condition in which a person becomes highly distressed by perceived flaws in their appearance, often flaws that others may not notice.
The new study examined whether repeated cosmetic procedures may, in some cases, resemble a behavioural addiction.
Women with lower body esteem were more likely to report addiction-like patterns, particularly when this was combined with high levels of problematic social media use.
Participants who reported problematic or excessive social media behaviour appeared especially vulnerable when they also felt dissatisfied with their appearance.
The researchers also found smaller links between addictive cosmetic procedure use and lower feminist attitudes, lower attachment security and more negative attitudes towards ageing.
However, those links were less consistent when several factors were analysed together.
The findings come amid a sharp global rise in cosmetic procedures, with international estimates cited by the researchers suggesting interventions increased by around 40 per cent between 2019 and 2023.
The researchers stressed that the study does not suggest cosmetic procedures are inherently harmful.
Instead, they said repeated engagement may, for some people, take on characteristics similar to behavioural addictions already recognised in mental health research.
The researchers said: “Cosmetic procedures have become deeply normalised in many societies, and for many people they may be a positive experience.
“But our findings suggest that for a meaningful minority, the behaviour may begin to resemble other compulsive patterns we see in addiction research, especially when low body esteem and problematic social media use are involved.”
The study was cross-sectional, meaning it captured a single point in time and cannot prove cause and effect.
Researchers said it remains unclear whether problematic social media use contributes to addiction-like cosmetic procedure behaviour, whether treatments influence body image and online engagement, or whether other psychological factors drive both.
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