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By Angela Stoehr
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America is making a choice about women’s health, and it is the wrong one. Every year that we delay investing in women’s health research, undervalue the doctors who care for women, and tolerate a system that treats women’s medical needs as secondary, we push the cost onto the next generation.
If we do not change course now, today’s daughters will inherit a healthcare system that fails them just as it has failed their mothers. That is not inevitable. It is a policy decision, and it can be reversed.
The recently endorsed National Strategy to Close the Women’s Health Gap offers a path forward. Supported by 37 medical organizations, it calls for a $20 billion federal investment over the next decade to address decades of neglect in women’s health research. Congress should act on it.
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This is not about giving women special treatment. It is about correcting a national failure that affects every American. Women are mothers, daughters, workers, caregivers, business owners, and the people who often coordinate healthcare for entire families. When women receive delayed diagnoses, limited treatment options, or inadequate care, the effects spread through households, workplaces, schools, and the economy.
The numbers make the problem impossible to dismiss. Only 8.8 percent of National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending on research grants from fiscal years 2013 through 2023 went to women’s health research. That imbalance has consequences. Conditions affecting millions of women continue to receive less attention, fewer treatment options, and slower scientific progress than they deserve.
Seeing the Consequences Every Day
I see those consequences every day. Patients arrive after years of being told their symptoms are normal, exaggerated, or something they simply have to live with. Pelvic pain, menopause, hormonal disorders, sexual dysfunction, and other conditions often go untreated for far too long.
Delayed care means prolonged suffering, worsening disease, higher healthcare costs, and lost opportunities to intervene earlier.
The problem extends beyond research. It is built into the economics of healthcare. According to Medscape’s 2026 Physician Compensation Report, obstetrician-gynecologists earn substantially less on average than urologists.
No single statistic explains physician compensation, and differences in procedures, reimbursement systems, and practice models all matter.
But OB-GYNs also manage unpredictable emergencies, high-risk pregnancies, major surgeries, enormous legal exposure, and around-the-clock responsibilities while caring for both mother and baby. When the physicians who provide that care face growing financial pressure and burnout, patients lose access.
Longer Waiting Times, Less Maternity Care
That affects everyone. Fewer physicians entering women’s health means longer waits for appointments, fewer specialists, more hospital closures, and reduced access to maternity care. Families pay the price through delayed treatment, preventable complications, and rising healthcare costs.
The consequences become even greater for women already facing unequal access to care. Black women continue to experience significantly worse maternal outcomes than white women. Ignoring women’s health does not affect every community equally. It widens existing gaps and leaves the most vulnerable families even further behind.
There are two futures in front of us. One is obvious: invest in research, modernize reimbursement, strengthen access to evidence-based care, and build a healthcare system that treats women’s health as essential. The result is earlier diagnoses, healthier pregnancies, stronger families, a more stable healthcare workforce, and lower long-term costs.
The other future is just as clear. Continue treating women’s health as an afterthought, and physician shortages will worsen, scientific progress will slow, healthcare costs will rise, and another generation of women will spend years fighting to have their pain taken seriously. Our daughters will inherit a system we already know is not good enough.
We do not need more reports explaining the problem. We need action.
Congress should fund the National Strategy to Close the Women’s Health Gap. Health systems should examine reimbursement policies that discourage physicians from entering women’s health. Researchers, employers, and voters should demand that women’s health be treated as a national priority instead of a niche issue.
We already know what needs to change. Now we need the courage to change it.
Dr. Angela Stoehr, MD, FACOG, is the founder of The Stoehr Center in Frisco, Texas. She specializes in chronic pelvic pain, sexual dysfunction and women’s health.
The views expressed are the author's own.
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