However it was later criticised for not including violence as an explicit target, the “missing target”. In the evaluation of MDG 3, violence remained a major barrier to achieving the goals.
The next phase was the specific funding of large scale epidemiology studies and clinical trials focussing on women’s health such as the Women’s Health Initiative , the largest disease prevention study conducted in the US. Its role was to study the major causes of death, disability and frailty in older women. In 2006 women accounted for less than 25{06e5c851e71f046c386a74248b3a53282284dae0fc18af42c313779a50d46a39} of clinical trials published in 2004, A follow up study by the same authors five years later found little evidence of improvement. Another study found between 10–47{06e5c851e71f046c386a74248b3a53282284dae0fc18af42c313779a50d46a39} of women in heart disease clinical trials, despite the prevalence of heart disease in women.
Women’s bodies go through major changes throughout their lives, leading to differences in health concerns for varying age groups. During times of physiological change, women are more susceptible to mental health issues like depression, anxiety and eating disorders. In adulthood, sexual health issues like fertility, avoiding STDs and practicing safe birth control gain importance. After menopause, some women experience health conditions caused by changes in hormone levels. Fortunately, most of the diseases that affect women are treatable if detected early, and women can live long and happy lives by following simple health tips.
Find information on birth control, menstruation, breasts, osteoporosis, menopause, female cancers, and tests and treatments specific to women’s health. STDs, reproductive issues and birth control methods affect women’s sexual health.

Discrimination bars some from accessing the health care services they need, or renders them more susceptible to illness. It might come in the form of the man in the family who sleeps alone under the household’s only mosquito net. Or refuses to use condoms despite a high risk of transmitting HIV. Gender-based violence, a persistent epidemic in all societies, destroys women’s physical and mental health, and at times takes their lives. Early marriage exposes girls to the potentially devastating health impacts of bearing children at too young an age.
These hormonal changes may be associated with both systemic sensations such as hot flashes and local changes to the reproductive tract such as reduced vaginal secretions and lubrication. While menopause generally occurs naturally as a physiological process it may occur earlier as a result of disease or from medical or surgical intervention. When menopause occurs prematurely the adverse consequences may be more severe. Important sexual health issues for women include Sexually transmitted infections and female genital cutting . STIs are a global health priority because they have serious consequences for women and infants. Mother-to-child transmission of STIs can lead to stillbirths, neonatal death, low-birth-weight and prematurity, sepsis, pneumonia, neonatal conjunctivitis, and congenital deformities. Syphilis in pregnancy results in over 300,000 fetal and neonatal deaths per year, and 215,000 infants with an increased risk of death from prematurity, low-birth-weight or congenital disease.
However, research has demonstrated significant biological differences between the sexes in rates of susceptibility, symptoms and response to treatment in many major areas of health, including heart disease and some cancers. These exclusions pose a threat to the application of evidence-based medicine to women, and compromise to care offered to both women and men. One of the Millennium Goals was the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, which sought to eliminate all forms of violence against women as well as implementing CEDAW. This recognised that eliminating violence, including discrimination was a prerequisite to achieving all other goals of improving women’s health.