While women make up half the population, conditions unique to or predominantly occurring in women are disproportionately under-funded compared to those occurring predominantly in men. The Women First Research Coalition (WFRC), composed of 14 women’s health and obstetrical and gynecological specialty societies, is focused on securing research funding for these conditions. CRD Associates devised a fiscal year (FY) 2021 appropriations strategy to focus on report language that directed the NIH Office of Women’s Health to hold a consensus conference to identify the existing research gaps in women’s health. The language was included in the report and the conference was held in October 2021. When the meeting did not yield the anticipated information, CRD Associates devised a new strategy and developed new report language included in the FY 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations report that provided $2 million in funding for a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study on women’s health, which we anticipate will evaluate current NIH funding for women’s health, identify gaps in the NIH-supported research, and make recommendations for how to fill these gaps.
March 21, 2023