For centuries, the healthcare industry has systematically failed women. From lack of research on female-specific conditions to the hidden dangers of everyday products, the continued neglect of women’s health is not just an oversight; it’s institutionalized discrimination that puts millions of lives at risk.

Medical treatments have been researched and developed almost exclusively on male subjects, and later applied to the general population, leading to potential gaps in optimal treatment for females, according to a 2022 study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This oversight has left many conditions that impact women, such as endometriosis, underfunded and misunderstood, according to the NIH.

The NIH allocates less than nine percent of its overall budget to women’s health research, according to a report done by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Alarmingly, this percentage has decreased over the past decade. This means fewer answers, fewer treatments, and fewer breakthroughs for conditions that affect women worldwide.

However, this problem extends beyond research; women’s health is also compromised by the very products they rely on daily.

As a part of Students For Human Rights, I learned about the serious consequences of women’s health being neglected. This year, researchers found toxic metals, including lead, arsenic, and cadmium, in tampons from 14 different brands, according to a 2024 article by the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Despite the potential health risks, around 100 million women worldwide use tampons regularly, unaware of what they might be exposing themselves to, according to the NIH. Women should not have to bear the burden of a healthcare system that pays insufficient attention to them. Women also experience chronic pain conditions at higher rates than men, the NIH stated. Even when women seek medical care, their pain is often disregarded or overlooked by medical professionals, and many are told that their symptoms, particularly those related to menstrual health, are simply a natural part of being a woman and do not warrant medical attention, according to the NIH.

The consequences of this discrimination can be life-threatening.

Young female patients who present heart attack symptoms wait, on average, 29 percent longer to be evaluated than men, according to the Journal of the American Heart Association. The continued neglect of women’s health is not an accident, it’s a reflection of how little women’s health is valued.

This issue isn’t just for politicians and policymakers to solve. This issue is about you as students, too.

You deserve to be taken seriously for your pain. You deserve to be able to access and afford products that are necessary to your well-being. You deserve to be treated with urgency and dignity.

So here’s a message to my future doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, teachers, and scientists; it’s time for you to raise your voices and challenge the standard.

Women’s health should no longer be an afterthought—it should be a priority.