News
Women’s Health Strategy risks becoming “PR sticking plaster”, warn campaigners
Experts and women’s health campaigners fear that the government could be using the strategy as a “short-term vote-winner”
England’s Women’s Health Strategy risks becoming a “PR sticking plaster” unless more government funding is made available, campaigners have said.
The Women’s Health Strategy, published for the first time in July 2022, has bold ambitions to tackle inequalities within the health and care system.
As of this year, the initiative seeks to provide better care for menstrual and gynaecological conditions, expand women’s health hubs, improve maternity care and accelerate research.
However, with the UK general election looming, experts and women’s health campaigners have warned that the government could be using the strategy as a “short-term vote-winner” rather than a sustainable, long-term plan.
Kate Muir, women’s health campaigner and author of Everything You Need to Know About the Pill, said: “Until the Women’s Health Strategy is properly funded, it will just be a public-relations sticking plaster covering up ongoing chaos, misery, and year-long waiting lists.
“While Dame Professor Lesley Regan is doing an innovative job, the £25m over two years to fund one-stop-shop women’s health hubs across the country works out at roughly £1 per woman.
“Meanwhile, the government has spent £240m on its failed Rwanda deportation scheme. It is clear women’s health is not a priority.”
Hannah Wrathall, director at the London-based consulting firm Wrapp Consulting, said: “My concern is that the government is using the strategy as a short-term vote-winner.
“The promised funding is not enough. We need to keep reinforcing that addressing women’s health is not only a health issue but one that impacts our productivity and economic growth too.”
Last month, as part of the Women’s Health Strategy, the health secretary Victoria Atkins announced £50m in funding to tackle maternal disparities and support research into other aspects of women’s health. How that will play out, however, remains unclear.
“They specifically talk about research, but we don’t know how they are going to fund that research,” said Karli Büchling, women’s health advocate and founder of Yoni Health.
“What are the actions that they are going to take to prioritise menstrual and gynaecological conditions and women’s health research?
“With regards to research into menstrual and gynaecological conditions, it is solely focussed on how to improve care. We don’t know though what type of research they are going to focus on and how long this budget will be allocated for.”
Currently, the UK has the largest gender health gap in the G20. According to Public Health England, the average woman spends nearly a quarter of her life in poor health compared with a fifth for men.
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.
Dr Bella Smith, GP and co-founder of The Well HQ, said: “For too long women’s health has been medicalised and shrouded in shame and stigma. Women want to talk openly about their symptoms and their experience and be able to understand their bodies at every life stage.
“Too many women suffer with menstrual issues, such as endometriosis, that need more understanding, quicker easier diagnosis and better treatment.
“As a doctor, I want to be able to help my patients to diagnosed and treated quickly, efficiently and effectively. Women need to be heard more, listened to and believed.”
To receive the Femtech World newsletter, sign up here.
Ovarian cancer cells quickly activate survival responses after PARP inhibitor treatment, and a lung cancer drug could help block this, research suggests.
PARP inhibitors are a common treatment for ovarian cancer, particularly in tumours with faulty DNA repair. They stop cancer cells fixing DNA damage, which leads to cell death, but many tumours later stop responding.
Researchers identified a way cancer cells may survive PARP inhibitor treatment from the outset, pointing to a potential way to block that response. A Mayo Clinic team found ovarian cancer cells rapidly switch on a pro-survival programme after exposure to PARP inhibitors. A key driver is FRA1, a transcription factor (a protein that turns genes on and off) that helps cancer cells adapt and avoid death.
The team then tested whether brigatinib, a drug approved for certain lung cancers, could block this response and boost the effect of PARP inhibitors. Brigatinib was chosen because it inhibits multiple signalling pathways involved in cancer cell survival.
In laboratory studies, combining brigatinib with a PARP inhibitor was more effective than either treatment alone. Notably, the effect was seen in cancer cells but not normal cells, suggesting a more targeted approach.
Brigatinib also appeared to act in an unexpected way. Rather than working through the usual DNA repair routes, it shut down two signalling molecules, FAK and EPHA2, that aggressive ovarian cancer cells rely on. FAK and EPHA2 are proteins that relay survival signals inside cells. Blocking both at once weakened the cells’ ability to adapt and resist treatment, making them more vulnerable to PARP inhibitors.
Tumours with higher levels of FAK and EPHA2 responded better to the drug combination. Other data link high levels of these molecules to more aggressive disease, pointing to potential benefit in harder-to-treat cases.
Arun Kanakkanthara, an oncology investigator at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “This work shows that drug resistance does not always emerge slowly over time; cancer cells can activate survival programmes very early after treatment begins.”
John Weroha, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “From a clinical perspective, resistance remains one of the biggest challenges in treating ovarian cancer. By combining mechanistic insights from Dr Kanakkanthara’s laboratory with my clinical experience, this preclinical work supports the strategy of targeting resistance early, before it has a chance to take hold. This strategy could improve patient outcomes.”
Nighttime temperatures during pregnancy may be linked to a higher chance of an autism diagnosis in children, a recent study suggests.
The research tracked nearly 295,000 mother-child pairs in Southern California from 2001 to 2014 and linked warmer overnight temperatures with higher risk in early and late pregnancy.
Children of mothers exposed to higher than typical nighttime temperatures during weeks one to 10 of pregnancy had a 15 per cent higher risk of an autism diagnosis.
Exposure during weeks 30 to 37 was linked to a 13 per cent higher risk.
Lead author David Luglio, a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University, said: “A key takeaway is that we identified specific windows when a mother and her developing child can be most affected by exposures to higher nighttime temperatures.
“This is critical and hopefully can help mothers prepare accordingly.”
The study is described as the first to examine how temperature may affect fetal neurodevelopment, the process by which a baby’s brain and nervous system form during pregnancy.
Extreme temperatures linked to increased risk were classified as above the 90th percentile, meaning 3.6°F hotter than average, and the 99th percentile, 5.6°F above average.
The association held even after researchers accounted for factors such as neighbourhood conditions, vegetation and fine-particle air pollution.
The study could not account for other factors such as access to air conditioning. Researchers did not find the same association with daytime temperatures, potentially because people spend more time away from home during the day.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and people may only think of the dangers of daytime heat exposure,” said Mostafijur Rahman, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University.
“These results indicate a strong association between high nighttime temperatures during pregnancy and autism risk in children and show that we need to think about exposure to heat around the clock.”
The study did not examine how higher temperatures at night might affect prenatal development, though Luglio said it is possible that warmer nights disrupt sleep for pregnant mothers.
Previous research has suggested insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be linked to a higher risk of neurocognitive delays in children.
“Extreme heat exposure during pregnancy has been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes, including prenatal neurodevelopment delays and complications with an embryo’s development of a central nervous system,” Luglio said.
“The goal of our study was to specifically explore the link between prenatal heat exposure and autism diagnoses for the first time.”
Kindbody has launched a fertility platform integrating AI with clinical care and patient support for employers and health plans.
The platform will enter a pilot with select Kindbody employer clients in 2026, covering over three million lives, ahead of wider availability in 2027.
Building on the company’s clinical model, the platform aims to improve outcomes and cost efficiency across family-building journeys. It connects Kindbody-owned clinics, partner clinics and an integrated clinical app.
The app offers virtual care across conception, pregnancy and reproductive health, extending through the menopause transition.
Launch features include updates in medication management, third-party reproduction, adoption, pregnancy, men’s health and global programme design.
David Stern, chief executive of Kindbody, said: “With our next-generation fertility platform, Kindbody is redefining what comprehensive, intelligent and affordable family-building care looks like for employers, health plans and patients.
“By unifying best-in-class clinical care, AI-driven intelligence and whole-person support, we are making it easier and more cost-effective for more people to build the families they envision.”
Kindbody has expanded access via its national network of IVF centres, including IVIRMA, Inception Fertility and Ivy Fertility.
A new Fertility Medication Portal is designed to streamline authorisations so medicines can be dispensed on time, giving patients visibility from prescription to coverage, pharmacy fulfilment and delivery tracking.
Through KindMan, men’s health education, digital resources and integrated clinical care are expanding, including hormone management programmes.
Services cover andropause (age-related testosterone decline), erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and other male reproductive conditions.
Specialist fertility care includes semen analysis, diagnostic testing, male hormone panels, genetic testing, surgical sperm extraction and sperm cryopreservation.
Launching in the second quarter, a pregnancy support app will act as a digital companion for expecting and new parents, with resources, interactive tools and clinical assessments to identify social drivers of health and mental health needs during pregnancy and beyond.
Kindbody’s physician-led menopause programme provides consultations with board-certified obstetricians and gynaecologists to diagnose, treat and manage menopausal symptoms, including hormone replacement therapy where appropriate, with support from nutritionists, mental health therapists and pelvic floor specialists.
AI and analytics will be embedded across the care journey. An AI care navigator will guide employees from benefit activation through intake, triage and scheduling.
Tools will track benefits and treatment plans, showing coverage and expected out-of-pocket costs at each step.
AI-supported scribing will assist clinicians with documentation, and a predictor tool will estimate a patient’s likelihood of having a baby across different treatment paths.
In 2027, Kindbody plans a savings model for eligible large employers that it says will guarantee lower total fertility spend while improving clinical efficiency and patient experience.
-
Insight4 weeks agoDesigner perfumes recalled over banned chemical posing fertility risk
-
Insight2 weeks agoParents sue IVF clinic after delivering someone else’s baby
-
Insight3 weeks agoWomen’s health could unlock US$100bn by 2030
-
Insight4 weeks agoChina’s birth rate hits record low despite government fertility efforts
-
Menopause3 weeks agoHRT linked to greater weight loss on tirzepatide
-
Entrepreneur6 days agoUS startup builds wearable hormone tracker
-
Wellness2 weeks agoFlo Health and Mayo Clinic publish global perimenopause awareness study
-
Entrepreneur4 weeks agoVerdane invest in Clue to accelerate the future of women’s health
2 Comments