Why Women's Health Research is Decades Behind

Happy Monday!

Many women spend a lot of time wondering if they’re broken when desire doesn't show up on cue. They worry when intimacy feels like something they have to be in the mood for first, rather than something that creates the mood. But sex therapists say that for many women, desire often works differently than we've been taught to expect. It's not always spontaneous; sometimes it's responsive, emerging after connection has already begun.

Today, we're also looking at why Lindsey Vonn's very public injury recovery is resonating with so many people, why women's health conditions like PCOS and endometriosis remain poorly understood (and what's finally changing), and why ruminating on decisions makes you less confident, not more.

And on another note, don’t forget to enter our referral Spring Share Circle drawing! Your personal link can be found below in the newsletter.

As always, we share women’s health and wellness news that’s evidence-based and thoughtfully explained.

Wishing you good health and happiness!
Nicolle
Editor

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When athletes suffer serious injuries, they usually disappear from public view for a while.

Not Lindsey Vonn.

After crashing during the Winter Olympics and suffering a devastating leg injury on top of a previous injury from a week prior, the 41-year-old skier has been documenting her recovery in striking detail—sharing hospital updates, X-rays, surgeries, and even the emotional reality of what she’s going through.

For some observers, the openness has been surprising. But for many athletes, publicly sharing injury and recovery can be helpful. Serious injuries often come with an unexpected sense of isolation once competition stops and the spotlight fades.

By sharing the reality of recovery and not just the highlight reel, Vonn has kept control of her own narrative while showing the unfiltered side of resilience.

Instead of disappearing after a setback, she’s reminding millions of people that healing, like success, deserves to be seen too.

Many women are taught that sexual desire should work like a light switch—you either feel turned on or you don’t.

But research suggests that for many women, desire often works differently.

Sex therapists describe two common patterns: spontaneous desire and responsive desire. Spontaneous desire is the one we hear about most—it appears suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. But responsive desire tends to emerge after something pleasurable begins: a kiss, touch, emotional closeness, or simply slowing down together.

One expert describes the difference like this: spontaneous desire is like feeling hungry, while responsive desire is more like smelling fresh bread and suddenly wanting to eat.

Understanding this can be surprisingly freeing. If desire doesn’t show up immediately, it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you or your relationship. For many people, especially in long-term partnerships, desire often grows once intimacy has already begun.

In other words, sometimes the mood doesn’t strike first. Sometimes we create the conditions where it can appear.

Don’t forget to enter our Spring Share Circle referral drawing! Enter to win gift cards from GOOP for up to $250! It’s fun! Click here to learn more, and use the link below to refer friends and family to our wellness community.

The frustration many women feel about this is very real, and it has historical roots.

For decades, medical research was conducted primarily on men. Until the early 1990s, women were routinely excluded from clinical trials in the U.S. because researchers worried that hormonal cycles might “complicate” results. As a result, much of what medicine understood about the human body was based largely on male physiology.

The gap still affects how women’s conditions are studied and treated today.

Take polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which affects roughly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age, according to the National Institute of Health. Despite being one of the most common hormonal disorders in women, its exact causes are still not fully understood. Many women wait years for a diagnosis, partly because symptoms, which can include irregular periods, acne, fatigue, weight changes, excess hair growth, and insulin resistance, can appear very different from person to person.

Researchers are beginning to close the gap. Women now make up a larger share of clinical research participants, and funding for conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, and menopause-related health has increased significantly over the past decade.

But medicine is still catching up to decades of underinvestment in women’s health.

The good news: awareness is rising quickly, and many experts believe the next generation of research will dramatically expand what we know about women’s bodies and how to treat them better.