Welcome to the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. A Top Ten Medical School, our departments, centers and institutes work with the University of Colorado Hospital, Children's Hospital Colorado Barbara Davis Center.

Why Research Matters

When women are healthy, they benefit as do their families, communities, and society. Women make up 51% of the U.S. population, 59% of the over-65 population, and 71% of Americans older than 85. Yet until the early 1990s most clinical research studies excluded women as a matter of policy. In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that women be excluded from clinical trials based on its conclusion that participation might harm women's reproductive health. Those restrictions were not lifted until 1993, and it was not until the early 1990s that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiated targeted funding for women's health research.

After decades of neglect, much basic, clinical, translational, and health services research must be done to close the "knowledge gap" in women's health research and to determine how gender influences health, disease, and aging. As that occurs, improved detection and treatment of diseases for women, and men, should follow. With the aging of the Baby Boom generation, the percentage of older women will rise, making more imperative the need for research.

The Center for Women's Health Research is working to close the knowledge gap in women's health research so women-and the girls who follow-can lead longer, healthier, more productive lives.