Women’s Health as Global Health

The presenters asked that women’s health be viewed through a holistic approach. In fact, women’s health is global health. Healthy women are foundational to global progress, yet their health has been underfunded, underresearched, and underserved. The consequences are profound: shortened lives, unrealized potential, and economies held back.

While global efforts in recent decades have focused on reducing maternal mortality—through initiatives such as the Safe Motherhood Initiative, the Millennium Development Goals, and now the Sustainable Development Goals—an equally urgent crisis has been overlooked: chronic maternal morbidity, particularly pelvic floor disorders (PFDs).

The Hidden Burden

One in four women worldwide will experience a pelvic floor disorder, including prolapse, urinary or fecal incontinence, perineal trauma, and sexual dysfunction. These conditions often emerge months or years after childbirth, severely compromising physical function, mental health, productivity, and dignity. Women live longer than men but spend 25% more of their lives in poor health, and yet only 2% of research and development funding outside oncology is directed toward women’s health.

Despite this, maternal health services in most countries end at six weeks postpartum, reflecting a narrow view of maternal health that prioritizes survival over long-term well-being. Global monitoring frameworks exclude chronic maternal morbidity, reinforcing the misconception that these conditions are rare or insignificant. This neglect is rooted in systemic biases that value women primarily for reproduction, while dismissing the lifelong health consequences of childbirth. This represents a systemic blind spot.

Why It Matters

The neglect of women’s health is not only an equity issue but an economic one. Closing the women’s health gap could unlock up to $1 trillion in economic growth by 2040. For every $1 invested in women’s health, $3 is returned in economic value. Conversely, untreated PFDs lead to lost productivity, social isolation, and costly surgical interventions that are inaccessible to many in low- and middle-income countries.

Emerging Programs

Momentum is building to address this long-ignored burden. Training initiatives in Nepal, Ghana, and Sweden are equipping mid-career OBGYNs with urogynecology skills to seed local fellowship programs. In India, community-based protocols such as the Arman program integrate prevention, screening, and referral for PFDs into health systems, supported by smartphone apps, interactive videos, and even WhatsApp-based clinical support. Surveillance pilots are generating critical data to inform policy, while a forthcoming international white paper will make the scientific, social, and economic case for recognizing chronic maternal morbidity as a global health priority.

The Gates Foundation’s Innovation Equity Forum has also outlined 50 high-return opportunities to advance women’s health innovation, emphasizing needs such as data harmonization, inclusive research design, and workforce diversity. These efforts remind us that when women’s health is prioritized, innovation accelerates and benefits ripple worldwide.

A Call to Action

It is time for global health stakeholders—WHO, UN agencies, national governments, and donors—to act. Maternal health must be redefined beyond survival, with formal recognition of chronic morbidity as a key outcome. PFDs should be included in global monitoring frameworks and national health agendas. Investments are needed not only in surgical care but also in prevention, early screening, gaps in training and affordable therapies. Most importantly, women’s voices must be centered in policy and system design.

Women’s health is not a niche. It is a central pillar of global health, economic development, and human rights. When we invest in women, the returns are exponential: girls stay in school, women thrive beyond childbirth, and families, communities, and economies flourish.