AHRQ: Research on Women's Health Issues Informs Treatment Choices

It's all beginning to take on a certain surreal quality. Link here. Excerpt:

'As individuals, we want choices that reflect who we are and what's right for our situation. Getting the right health care is no different.

Until recently, information that showed which treatments work best for certain groups of patients, especially women, was hard to find.

Now women's health research is a growing field. The Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a long-term study launched by the late National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Bernadine Healy, MD, has provided important information on preventing and treating heart disease, breast and colorectal cancers, and osteoporosis in women aged 50 to 79.

The WHI and the Office of Research on Women's Health, led for two decades by Vivian Pinn, MD, helped to ensure that women are fairly represented in NIH-sponsored studies. Before the WHI began, very few studies focusing solely on women had been conducted.'