Addressing Gaps in Women’s Health: Insights from HLTH Europe 2025

At the recent HLTH Europe 2025 conference in Amsterdam, expert speakers highlighted critical gaps in women’s health, emphasizing that the issue goes far beyond reproduction and hormonal concerns. Petra Simic, PhD, a medical director at Bupa Health Clinics, stated that while the conversation surrounding women’s health is evolving, substantial challenges remain.

The Stark Statistics

The data presented at the conference reveals alarming disparities in women’s health outcomes:

• Women live longer than men but spend approximately 25% of their lives in worse health, equating to nine years of poor quality of life.
• Healthcare providers discriminate against women seven times more frequently than men.
• Women are three times more likely than men to be disregarded during medical consultations, leading to delayed diagnoses.
• Chronic pain disproportionately affects women—while they make up 70% of patients suffering from chronic pain, 80% of pain medication research involves male subjects.
• Geographical and economic factors lead to significant disparities in health outcomes, such as breast cancer survival rates, which can vary from over 90% in some high-income countries to less than 50% in others.
• Venture capital funding allocated to women’s health is only 4% of total healthcare investment.

Kristen Cerf, CEO of Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan, noted that these statistics are even more dire for women of color, exacerbating the issue further.

A Broader Societal Issue

The conversation at the conference made it clear that the health disparities faced by women are reflective of wider societal issues. Anna Coates, a senior gender technical lead at the World Health Organization (WHO), articulated that these inequities highlight a lack of valuation of women in society, which is mirrored in healthcare systems.

Moz Siddiqui from the WHO Foundation emphasized the need for systemic changes. “It is a systems failure because mostly men have created that system,” he asserted, urging the necessity for new, proactive stimuli to shift existing paradigms.

The Importance of Sleep

Jennifer Kanady, a sleep health technology expert at Samsung Electronics, discussed sleep’s crucial role in overall health. “Sleep is as essential as nutrition, exercise, and stress resilience,” she explained. Yet, it is often undervalued in clinical practice. The health risks associated with poor sleep can lead to serious complications like diabetes and heart disease, especially as women’s sleep patterns change with hormonal fluctuations throughout life.

Cardiovascular Health Misinformation

As the conference progressed, the topic of cardiovascular health raised significant concerns. Dr. Michiel Winter from the Amsterdam University Medical Center indicated that women’s cardiovascular risk factors are often misunderstood or misdiagnosed. “Women’s hearts should not be seen as just smaller versions of men’s hearts,” he stated, pointing out the vital need for gender-specific research and diagnostics in heart disease.

Revisiting Menopause

The narrative around menopause has historically been one of decline. However, experts like Dame Lesley Regan, MD, are advocating for a shift in this perspective. Regan emphasized that women today often spend more years post-menopause and face significant health challenges that need appropriate clinical attention.

Proposing a simple yet effective question for healthcare professionals—“Do you still have periods?”—Regan advocated for more inclusive health assessments for women transitioning into menopause.

A New Era for Women’s Health Advocacy

Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell suggested that addressing women’s health disparities requires a multifaceted approach. Normalizing conversations surrounding menstruation, menopause, and overall women’s health is crucial. “Empowering women to voice their health needs is essential,” she noted.

The discussions at the HLTH Europe 2025 conference illustrate a pivotal moment in health advocacy, where collective recognition of these systemic issues could lead to meaningful change. As the dialogue expands and evolves, it holds the promise of improving health outcomes for women globally and reshaping how society views women’s health.