Women’s Health Research: Where to Look and Who to Ask

🤔Why Research Women’s Health?

Women’s health remains one of medicine’s understudied areas. Diseases that affect women exclusively such as endometriosis, PCOS and ovarian cancer are chronically underfunded relative to their disease burden. Conditions that affect both sexes often present, progress, and respond to treatment differently in women. Despite this, many clinical guidelines fail to reflect this.

Women were historically excluded from clinical trials, meaning medical evidence was built almost entirely on a male model. The consequences are still present today. Women wait longer for diagnoses and often have symptoms attributed to anxiety rather than organic disease.

So, are you feeling motivated?

📌Getting Started as a Medical Student

You don’t need to wait until foundation training to start to build experience in women’s health research. There are a few accessible entry points that you can then use as a catalyst to further opportunities.

These include:

University societies and clubs
- Societies for women’s health and obstetrics and gynaecology allows you to attend talks, share experiences and befriend like-minded people.
- You can participate by attending pre-organised events or you can get involved in committees, shaping the content with which society members can engage. And if there’s no women’s health society – why not start your own? Student unions can usually help you out with this.
- You could also join the The British Undergraduate Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BUSOG)

Student Selected Components (SSCs)
- Some universities offer SSCs in women’s health. For example, the University of Leicester has previously offered SSC placements that contain content about menstrual disorders, gynaecology, and women’s health in primary care. Whilst SSCs may not offer extensive research opportunities, they can be useful for students to develop interest and meet tutors who can signpost them to further opportunities.

Intercalated BSc (iBSc)
- Alternatively, taking a year out of medicine to complete an iBSc in women’s health gives you the chance to publish your research and present at conferences. An iBSc also gives you the chance to connect with researchers, fostering future professional relationships. Universities that offer an iBSc in women’s health include University College London and King’s College London
- An iBSc is a large commitment, so it is worth exploring women’s health in societies and through SSCs initially.

Prizes and Awards
- Prizes and awards offer a great opportunity to deep dive into a subject of interest. You can find essay competitions on Royal College websites or pages like this: Progress with Jess or The student medic.

✍️Building Research Experience

Now that you’ve piqued your interest in women’s health, it’s time to get started with building your research skills. Research experience accumulates gradually. The goal is to move from observer to contributor to independent researcher. You don’t need to rush it!

There are lots of ways to build your research portfolio:

Contributing to papers with researchers and doctors
- Collaborating with researchers and doctors to contribute to their papers requires an ability to build good relationships. When you meet medical staff during clinical placements, ask whether they have active research projects and if there’s a role you could play.
- You could help with data collection, literature reviews or statistical analysis. Researchers are often glad of a motivated extra pair of hands.
- Be explicit about what you can offer and what you’re hoping to learn.

Leading audits and quality improvement projects (QIPs)
- Audits and QIPs both aim to improve quality of care. There is a slight difference between them, however both can be published in journals. Audits and QIPs can be beneficial for career progression and are useful for developing key research skills such as data collection, results interpretation, and reflection. There are lots of resources available online that explains how to carry out audits and QIPs, such as the University Hospitals Bristol introduction to clinical audit or The Health Foundation’s Quality Improvement Made Simple.

Research posts in foundation training
- Finally, there are several ways to incorporate research into your training. These include Specialised Foundation Programmes (SFPs) and, later in your career, Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs).

🔍Where to Look:

Networking and Seminars

When it comes to forming connections, it is good to be proactive and to show interest in a researcher’s work.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Their research clinic allows you to book a session with a senior academic to discuss research ideas, get feedback on proposals, and think through your next steps. This offers surprisingly direct access to expertise.

Society for Women’s Health Research
- The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) hosts events both in-person and virtually (note that SWHR is based in the US and sometimes holds events globally).
- SWHR also has an application for researchers to share their research, leading to potential social media exposure.
- Notably, SWHR supports research into a broad range of health issues faced by women outside of “typical” women’s health topics such as gynaecology and fertility. This includes autoimmunity, ageing, eye health, infection and more.

Women’s Health Research Cluster
- The Women’s Health Research Cluster holds a database of experts and lists research projects and working groups. They also hold a seminar series which discusses multidisciplinary research. These allow researchers to network and collaborate globally.

💰Funding

Not all research projects require funding but it can be useful in some circumstance such as when there is a large sample size or when extra resources are required.

Dedicated women’s health funding is more targeted than general medical research grants which means competition can be slightly less intense, and reviewers are more likely to understand the specific context of your work. The most relevant dedicated sources are outlined below.

Funder	Grant/ Scheme	Who can apply	Funding
Wellbeing of Women	Wellbeing of Women offers entry-level scholarships, usually for 12 months. This scholarship is designed to expose graduates to a research career and potentially aid a PhD application.	Pre-doctoral candidates	£20,000
BMA Foundation – Helen H Lawson grant	The 2026 round is focused specifically on ethnicity-related inequities in maternal health, while previous years have covered broader women’s health topics. Applications open in early January.	Doctors and early career researchers	£65,000

Note that there are many other organisations that offer funding for women’s health research, such as the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council and the NIHR. However, these are not specific to women’s health research.

💭Final Thoughts

Women’s health research is a field that genuinely needs more people in it. Although women’s health research can be hard to get into, there are many ways to connect with researchers and gain academic experience in this field. No matter your career stage, there are places to get advice, funding and exposure for your work.

Start with what’s accessible, for example a society, an SSC, a conversation with a supervisor you respect and build from there. Most researchers in this field didn’t arrive with a clear roadmap; they accumulated experience slowly over time through following what interested them, and staying curious.