A Mathematician’s Perspective on Women’s Health: Funding for Gynaecological Cancers and Research in the United States
These results come from the work of US applied mathematician Arthur Mirin, an independent researcher who initially published the analysis1 in 2021. The latest information on funding and burden was included in his analysis. The overall pattern remains the same.
The UK Medical Research Council has funding for research on preterm birth and perinatal health as well as studies into the effects of diet, smoking and other factors on disorders such as cancer. The funder spent nearly $125 million on this area in the last 5 years. In the past six months, it spent roughly the same amount as it spent on cardiovascular disease alone. A researcher who studies depression and Alzheimer’s disease wants women’s health funding to cover more than just female-specific conditions. She says every single organ in her body is affected by sex. “It affects every part of our health.”
In an e-mail to Nature, the NIH also said that it takes into account considerations beyond the burden of disease when making funding decisions, for example for urgent research that might mitigate an outbreak of infectious disease.
Mirin is certainly not the only one who makes such observations. An analysis of funding for cancer in the US over the past decade showed that gynaecological cancers received less support than other cancers when compared to years of life lost for each new diagnosis. Ovarian cancer is 12th in terms of funding-to-lethality ratio and 5th for lethality in a selection of 19 cancers. There is a similar pattern of cancer. Funding to death for many gynaecological cancers fell during the 11-year period.
Thankfully, that has changed. NIH data show that roughly half of participants in NIH-funded trials are women. The NIH has an office dedicated to research into women’s health and the agency mandates that researchers use both male and female animals in their studies, as appropriate. Canada and Europe have adopted similar policies for their health-research funders. The US Congress directed the US National Institute of Health to contribute $10 million for an Office of Autoimmune Disease Research.
30th anniversary of landmark US law In 1993, it became compulsory to include women and under-represented groups in research and clinical trials funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is normal and acceptable for drugs and vaccines to only be tested on men, or for women who could get pregnant, if you happen to be a man.
The landscape for women’s-health research has changed over the past 30 years. But in other respects, time has stood still. Mirin has helped to unlock a window to a previously hidden corner of research. Funders need to make more funding calls to other scholars in order for them to work with them. At the same time, funders must review how they classify the components of women’s health, because that will speed up data collection. A separate identification code for menopause should not be difficult to implement.