Women's health

We define women’s health in a way that does justice to the reality of women in all phases of life, as follows:

Women’s health concerns the wellbeing of girls and women in physical, mental, social and societal terms. It encompasses both health aspects related to the female body – such as hormonal processes – and factors such as lifestyle, mental resilience, relationships, care, education, work and participation that influence women’s health, wellbeing and functioning.

The National Women’s Health Strategy 2025–2030 (Nationale Strategie Vrouwengezondheid 2025–2030) lays a solid foundation with a focus on knowledge and innovation, appropriate care and support, and awareness and collaboration. The aim is clear: a society in which every woman has the opportunity to live as healthy a life as possible, to shape her own life and to participate fully – in her own way, at every stage of life.

In March 2024, the Dutch caretaker Minister for Medical Care, Pia Dijkstra, announced that funding would be made available for research into female-specific health. This followed efforts by, among others, the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (NVOG), the Federation of Medical Specialists (FMS), Women Inc., Voices for Women, ZonMw and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Together, we identified the lack of knowledge about the female body, which negatively affects women’s health. In autumn 2024, the Female-specific Healthcare knowledge programme was launched.

For 10 years, Bianca de Bie’s endometriosis was not taken seriously. “It is just part of it, do not complain.” But menstrual pain that completely incapacitates you is not normal. Endometriosis affects one in ten women, yet it takes an average of seven to eight years to receive the correct diagnosis. Thanks to the strong work of the project team and ZonMw’s connecting role, GPs, gynaecologists, occupational physicians and patients can now use endometriosewijzer.nl – a platform that informs and supports both patients and healthcare professionals. We would like to build on this success. For this reason, a network is currently being established that will, among other things, set up a platform bringing together consolidated knowledge on women’s health for experts and other interested parties. 

Since 2012, we have identified that disease patterns differ between women and men. On the basis of this observation and the research agenda, the Gender and Health knowledge programme was launched in 2016. Through 66 projects, this programme has taken an important step towards reducing health disparities between men and women. We are now working, under a specific mandate, to create a flywheel effect so that all ZonMw programmes pay attention to sex and gender. 

2 studies within the knowledge programme Gender and Health are dedicated to complications in pregnancy. Women who suffer complications during pregnancy are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease postpartum. Hedwig Vos and Jeanine Roeters van Lennep have been researching this topic. They concluded that pregnancy is a huge stress test for the body. In order to prevent postpartum cardiovascular disease, they suggest that women be given lifestyle advice and regular check-ups by their GP.