Mount Sinai Answers the Call to Advance Women’s Health Research

Photos Courtesy of Mount Sinai Health System

Women make up more than half of the population of the United States. They use health care services more frequently than men do and they make most of the health care decisions for their families. However, while women live longer, they experience poorer health than men on a variety of outcomes. To date, too few institutions have established interdisciplinary research institutes dedicated to advancing science in the field of women’s health.

Three researchers—two leaders and one prominent new addition—are among the many at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who are dedicated to addressing these gaps in knowledge and clinical care. Recently, they took a moment to share their thoughts.

semi-foreign being within her own body—remains poorly understood. Better understanding of how immune cells traffic between the mother and child would undoubtedly advance discovery, not only for maternal-fetal health but also for cancer and transplant biology.

We remain not just in the dark about pregnancy but truly about women’s health across the lifespan. We have seen what can occur when there is focus and commitment to advancing health. For example, cardiovascular well-being has improved over the last few decades because of a continuous research focus, development of new therapeutics, and advancement of a precision-based approach to care.

and empowering investigators to pursue understudied areas in women’s health research. Importantly, we are creating a new Institute of Female Biology (IFaB) whose main mission will be to advance understanding of biology that drives health and disease in women. IFaB will focus on conditions that—while common and creating an undue burden for women— have remained largely unattended to, such as infertility, preterm birth, preeclampsia, endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, menopause and so many others.

Michal A. Elovitz, MD Dean, Women’s Health Research Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science Director, Institute of Female Biology

Women’s health and women’s health science have remained stagnant for decades. The United States has one of the highest rates of maternal morbidity and mortality among industrialized nations. One of the leading drivers of this is preeclampsia. One hundred years ago, preeclampsia was described as “toxemia,” as it was believed a toxin must be responsible for the multiorgan injury resulting from this disease, which affects one in 12 pregnancies. The treatment for toxemia was simply delivery, and 100 years later, that remains the only definitive treatment for this life-threatening condition. In 2023, preeclampsia remains mostly unsolved.

Pregnancy health remains one of the most understudied areas in medicine. The phenomenon of how a mother tolerates a fetus—a

However, these benefits have accrued disproportionately to men. Failure to attend to sex-specific biology has significantly hampered improvement in cardiovascular health for women. Importantly, the lack of scientific focus on female-specific diseases, such as infertility, endometriosis, pelvic floor disorders, menopause and gynecologic pre-cancers and cancers, has resulted in a failure to make significant improvements in health outcomes for women at all points in their lifespan.

But this does not have to be our truth. We can do better for ourselves, for all women, and for our daughters. Mount Sinai saw this opportunity, and I am so ready and enthusiastic to lead this charge. As the inaugural Dean for Women’s Health Research, I am being empowered, along with amazing colleagues at Icahn Mount Sinai, to create a new paradigm for advancing women’s health. We will develop new opportunities in women’s health science by leveraging existing expertise in diverse fields, creating collaborative networks

Mount Sinai recognized that we have all the tools to make things different for women’s health. If we have learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that bringing together multidisciplinary teams, innovating new approaches, revealing key biological processes, and targeting plausible therapeutics can result in rapid scientific discovery and viable therapeutics to immediately improve health. With the support and innovation of Mount Sinai, we intend to leverage all of these tools and approaches to transform women’s health science and improve women’s health.

Women should not have to suffer because we do not have answers. They should not have to suffer because no one has invested in understanding female biology. They should not have to keep being told that there is no answer and that no one knows why they are in pain, or cannot have a baby, or why they lost a baby, or why they do not feel normal in midlife. At Mount Sinai, we are choosing to do more. To do so much more. We are choosing to make a difference, to understand biology, to improve women’s health. It is way past time to make women’s health science, women’s health and women a priority.