Women's Health Research at Yale

19/08/2026

Women’s health is precision medicine’s unfinished business, argues Women's Health Research at Yale Director Dr. Basmah Safdar in a new Comment for The Lancet.

Read the compelling piece, highlighting the need to extend science beyond s*x-stratified analyses; introducing KINETIC as a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to improving women’s health; and underscoring the importance of augmenting funding mechanisms to include a reverse-pitch model, here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01416-9/fulltext

Recent scientific discoveries reveal that the biology of health and disease differs substantially between men and women.1 However, clinical care, research infrastructure, and investment models continue to treat male biology as the default, leading women to experience delayed diagnoses, less effectiv...

05/08/2026

Women's Health Research at Yale Collaborative Member Clare Flannery, MD, was recently featured by Yale News (Yale University). Flannery is leading the Yale Legacy Collaborative, a long-term initiative reconnecting more than 2,500 former participants in Yale's childhood metabolic health studies to examine how early-life health influences health outcomes.

By extending decades of research into adulthood, Flannery and team aim to uncover new insights into diabetes risk, cardiometabolic disease, and women's health that can guide earlier prevention and more personalized care.

This cohort will be used by Stephanie Samuels, MD, (Yale Pediatrics 👩‍⚕️Yale Pedi Endo) to recruit for her recently announced Women's Health Research at Yale Pilot Project.

Read the full piece here: https://news.yale.edu/2026/07/21/30-year-follow-yale-researchers-reconnect-child-participants-metabolic-health-study.

20/07/2026

🎉Today we celebrate our 2026 Women's Health Research at Yale Pilot Project Awards! Five awards were made this year in key areas of aging and longevity, metabolic health, cancer, and autoimmunity. Two projects received General Awards, two received the newly established Women’s Health and Cancer Research Awards – co-funded by Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital – and one received the Wendy U. and Thomas C. Naratil Pioneer Award. science was key – two awards feature diverse teams across Yale School of Medicine departments.

Thank you to our Scientific Review Committee, Co-Chaired by Dr. Carolyn Fredericks and Dr. Stacy Malaker, and congratulations to this year’s recipients!

Read the full announcement here and click through the carousel below to meet our awardees: https://medicine.yale.edu/whr/news-article/womens-health-research-at-yale-funds-obesity-ovarian-aging-diabetes-cancer-autoimmunity-research/

Yale Pediatrics 🥼Yale Pedi Endo 🧬Smilow Cancer Hospital🔬Yale School of Public Health 🧬Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology 🌎 Yale University

14/07/2026

In a Yale University Q&A, Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine, Gynecologist, and Women's Health Research at Yale Collaborative Member Dr. Mary Jane Minkin discusses common misconceptions about — and shares some tips for navigating it. Read the full YaleNews piece here!

https://news.yale.edu/2026/03/10/mythbusting-perimenopause-madame-ovary

08/07/2026

Women's Health Research at Yale Collaborative Member Kimberly Manchester delivered a compelling presentation, “Sex Hormones, Cognition, and Menopausal Status Among Emergency Department Chest Pain Patients” at the 2026 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting, held this May in Atlanta, Georgia.

🧠 Cognitive function tends to decline with age, and women are up to three times more likely than men to develop impairment, especially after menopause.

🧠 To better understand the role of s*x hormones, Manchester and team enrolled patients from Yale New Haven Hospital Emergency Department Chest Pain Center to evaluate what associations, if any, exist among hormones, menopausal status, and cognition in males and females with vascular risk factors.

🧠 The takeaway: Rather than absolute hormone levels, the rate – and steepness – of estrogen decline was associated with lower cognitive function.

🎉 A milestone for Manchester: her first in-person presentation at a national conference!

Yale School of Medicine

30/06/2026

This summer, Women's Health Research at Yale and Society for Women's Health Research co-hosted the collaborative symposium “From Discovery to Impact," welcoming more than 50 speakers, researchers from 28 departments across Yale University, and 350+ attendees for a day-long event that covered the power of women’s health research through an arc of discovery to practical impact.

“Our symposium represents the power of collaboration and demonstrates exactly why women’s health is not niche science but is front and center in precision medicine,” said Basmah Safdar, MD, MSc, Director of Women's Health Research at Yale.

"For too long, women's health has been overlooked and understudied, across diseases and conditions, but we do not have to accept this as the status quo," said Kathryn Schubert, MPP, CAE, President and CEO of SWHR.

📸 Read more about the powerful event and explore our photo galleries here:

This summer, we saw a first-of-its-kind cross-sector collaboration – a leader in academic research and a national women’s health nonprofit joined forces to

24/06/2026

Yale School of Medicine investigators, together with a team of international scientists led by Dr. Dora Koller, have doubled the known genetic landscape of . Women’s Health Research at Yale Collaborative Member Dr. Renato Polimanti was senior author on the paper, recently published by Nature Genetics.

By analyzing the genomes of 1.4 million women, this research revealed:
🧬 80 genomic regions linked to endometriosis risk, 37 of which are new discoveries!
🧬 Genetic links between the disease and its diverse symptoms, including chronic pelvic pain, migraine, and nausea.
🧬 Potential new treatments by looking at drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug administration.
🧬 Five genetic loci shared between endometriosis and adenomyosis, providing further clarity into disease mechanisms.
🧬 Variations in disease manifestation based on geographic regions.

📰 For complete details, read the powerful Yale School of Medicine article by Christopher Gardner here: https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/largest-ever-genetic-study-of-endometriosis-uncovers-80-risk-regions-and-new-avenues-for-treatment.

Yale Department of Psychiatry

27/05/2026

Women’s Health Research at Yale Undergraduate Fellow Nana Kyei (Yale College ’28) answers the question, “Why Didn’t I Know This?” in her second article, titled “When A Migraine Sends You to the Emergency Room.” In this piece Nana explores migraine prevalence in women, how women experience migraine and migraine-related stigma. Read the article here! https://medicine.yale.edu/whr/news-article/opinion-when-a-migraine-sends-you-to-the-emergency-room/

Nana Kyei is majoring in the History of Science, Medicine and Public Health on the premedical track. Passionate about women’s health and health equity, she is committed to writing about women’s health topics that are often overlooked and under-researched. By writing on the “Why Didn’t I Know This” blog, Nana hopes to empower women through accessible health education and bring women’s health issues to the forefront of public discourse. She will continue answering the question “Why Didn’t I Know This” as a Fellow this fall! 📝

22/05/2026

Recently, Women’s Health Research at Yale Collaborative Member Dr. Carolyn Fredericks was interviewed by Pharmacy Times about the ways the menopausal transition can affect neurological risk in women. In fact:

🧠 MRI and PET studies show women in their 40s and 50s experience changes in brain connectivity – especially memory circuits – linked to declining estrogen during menopause.
🧠 Many neurological disorders change significantly in menopause – from to and even multiple sclerosis ( ) and ’s.
🧠 ’s disease, which constitutes the majority of the research efforts of both Dr. Fredericks and The Fredericks Lab, seems to be significantly influenced by menopause – timing, disease progression, and more.

More investment and continued investigation has the potential to inform treatment, disease management, and even prevention.

📰 Read or watch the interview here: https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/aan-2026-from-migraines-to-alzheimer-how-the-menopausal-transition-affects-neurological-risk-in-women.

This interview was in conjunction with 2026 AAN, the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

School of Medicine

15/05/2026

For nearly 30 years, Women’s Health Research at Yale has specifically been studying the health of women, which improves the lives of both women and men. Yale University researchers that we have funded have made discoveries related to cancer, mental health, surgery, immune response, and more, which have changed diagnosis, treatment, care, and even prevention for the better.

Scientists today are examining a variety of conditions that uniquely, disproportionately, and differently affect women, and working diligently toward the next breakthrough.

Read more about our work in Director Dr. Safdar’s article, “What the Science Really Says About Women’s Health” and consider making a gift to Women’s Health Research at Yale this May – Women’s Health Month – to fuel this work.

https://medicine.yale.edu/whr/donate/