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US$4.5m renewal backs women’s health careers programme
A five-year, US$4.5m renewal will expand a women’s health careers programme for early-career investigators, strengthening training in sex differences research.
The funding supports the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) programme at Emory University and comes from the US National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
BIRCWH develops the next wave of investigators studying how diseases affect women and men differently, pairing mentored research with skills in methods, biostatistics and grant writing. The renewal will train nine new scholars and enhance leadership development and administrative capacity in the next cycle.
“ This programme equips emerging investigators with the mentorship and support they need to grow into independent scientists. That foundation helps them turn curiosity into discovery and build careers that advance women’s health.”
The contact principal investigator is Anandi Sheth, director of the division of infectious diseases and professor of medicine. Co-principal investigators include Vas Michopoulos, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences, and Claire Sterk, president emerita and professor at the Rollins School of Public Health.
Since launch, the Emory programme has graduated 16 scholars who have published more than 700 peer-reviewed papers cited over 24,000 times; 11 alumni have secured nearly US$30m in NIH funding. Applications for the next cohort, run in collaboration with the Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance KL2 Scholars Programme, close on 2 Feb 2026.
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.
A London-based fertility clinic has been shortlisted for a startup award.
Plan Your Baby was shortlisted as a London finalist for Innovative Startup of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards.
Plan Your Baby is a new generation fertility and pregnancy telehealth clinic that provides fertility treatment and and-to-end pregnancy clinical monitoring and psychological support.
The company said on LinkedIn: “Being recognised in a city as competitive as London is meaningful for our team.
“The award is judged by industry experts and reflects the growing need for fertility care that is structured, transparent, and centred around the patient.
“Many people come to us looking for clarity in what can often feel like a complex process.
“Our focus has been to make each step easier to understand and easier to access.”
Plan Your Baby founder Marija Skujina was inspired to launch the company after working at the highest level in private fertility clinics and realising the impact that the traditional approach to fertility treatment was having on clients.
She told Femtech World in a 2023 interview: ““Fertility support is not just a medical procedure, it’s physical, mental, and emotional too.
“That’s why I launched Plan Your Baby: to help parents conceive in a fully supported and holistic manner.”
The UK StartUp Awards aim to ‘recognise the achievements of amazing individuals who have had a great idea, spotted the opportunity and taken the risks to launch a new product or service.’
If selected as the regional winner, Plan Your Baby will go on to the national final at Ideas Fest this September.
Previous winners include Magic AI, makers of a wall-mounted AI fitness mirror that acts as a personal trainer, and EnsiliTech, a medtech startup developing innovative health technology solutions at the intersection of engineering and healthcare.
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