Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD believes that personalized medicine should start with the health of women. She commends the Biden White House for announcing the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Woodruff asserts that when women’s health is prioritized, it will lead to better individual well-being, ensure generational health, and promote fundamental fairness.
In her work years ago, Woodruff pointed out that sex as a biological variable was not included in the majority of published papers. This means that the entire pipeline of work from bench discovery through therapeutic intervention is biased towards men. The Biden White House initiative aims to address this issue and promote individual health in various aspects such as heart health, immune health, and the microbiome.
The focus on women’s health will also lead to better generational health for those born after this paradigm-shifting initiative. Maternal health is only ensured by a focus on women, and the White House initiative will also tackle maternal mortality rates and provide better healthcare services for women before, during, and after pregnancy.
Finally, Woodruff argues that prioritizing women’s health will bring about fundamental fairness and address long-standing issues related to women’s health. She contends that when the health of women is prioritized, everyone benefits as a group and as individuals.