You might have noticed that about half the people in the world are women. Sometimes these women have health problems. Historically health and medical research has focused on either studying the male body as default, or more recently, using data that has not been separated for sex or gender differences. This has resulted in a lack of research about women’s health – from how medications are metabolised, to whether menstrual cups are actually safe, to understanding chronic health conditions that disproportionately impact women.

"This paper explores how we need to implement policies that create solutions that take into account the complexity of sex and gender, so we can increase the amount of research that is relevant to more than just the male body.

"Health research needs to consider more human diversity to improve healthcare for those who are currently under cared for, such as Indigenous peoples, disabled, trans, nonbinary and those with sex differences. Going beyond simply including these people in research, the authors explore how research needs to be carried out with care and consideration to ensure discrimination and exclusion is not reinforced.

"I’m part of a team that has co-created a library of health-related research questions that are a priority to women in Aotearoa New Zealand. The women we engaged with were enthusiastic to be involved in research that centred on their lived experiences. Our work showed how we can carry out better research and reinforced how women have been let down by the health research system in the past.

"Transdisciplinary research with a public participatory approach is key to carrying out health research that embraces the complexity of human differences – resulting in better health for everybody.