Roccamore celebrates March 8, 2025, by focusing on The Health Gap

RESPECT THE UTERUS

Women live 25% more of their lives with illness than men*, resulting in lost quality of life and significant economic costs. According to a report from the World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute, this health gap costs up to 1 trillion USD globally each year in lost value – and in Denmark alone, it is estimated to be 30 billion DKK annually*. The causes include delayed diagnoses, insufficient research, and a healthcare sector that is often based on male standards.

It will take 131 years* to achieve equality, and true equality requires that we treat women’s diseases with the same priority as men’s.

This must change.

That’s why, on International Women’s Day, we are focusing on women’s health together with Henriette Svarre Nielsen, Matilde Trobeck, Louise Dreisig, and Amani Meaidi.

Henriette Svarre Nielsen

Chief Physician. Professor. #RoccamoreRebel.

The fight to understand pregnancy loss. Henriette Svarre Nielsen is a leading researcher in women’s health and reproductive diseases. She is behind the Copenhagen Pregnancy Loss project, the world’s largest study of pregnancy loss, which she has been working on since 2011.

The project maps why pregnancies are lost and has already led to groundbreaking discoveries. Using a simple blood test from the mother, the fetus can now be diagnosed as early as the 5th week of pregnancy. This gives hope for a future where complications can be predicted – and perhaps even avoided altogether.

Henriette's mission is to create a deeper understanding of the biology of the female body so that medicine can diagnose, prevent, and treat women better. For her, it is not just about research – but about giving women the answers they have long been missing

Matilde Trobeck

Influencer. #RoccamoreRebel

The fight for transparency and equality in healthcare. Matilde Trobeck uses her voice to break taboos and raise awareness about women’s health. As an influencer and advocate for health equality, she fights to ensure that women’s experiences are taken seriously – both in society and in the healthcare system.

With her own experience of pregnancy loss, Matilde has brought an important issue to the forefront. She works to create greater openness about fertility challenges and ensure that women receive the support and information they need during a difficult time.

For Matilde, it’s not just about sharing stories – it’s about creating change. Her mission is to inspire other women to take ownership of their health and demand the care they deserve.

Only 1% of all medical research focuses on women-specific diseases, despite women making up half of the world's population

-McKinsey

JOIN THE DEBATE

Louise Dreisig

Author. Radio Host. #RoccamoreRebel

The fight to be heard. Louise works to break the taboo around menstruation and the idea that it has to be painful. She fights for endometriosis to be recognized at the same level as other chronic diseases, and for it to be as common to talk about as arthritis, asthma, or diabetes, so that women with endometriosis can receive help earlier.

In the fall of 2023, after several years of campaigning, she finally succeeded in getting endometriosis officially on the agenda at Christiansborg, when the disease was addressed in a public hearing organized by the Health Committee of the Danish Parliament. But there is still a long way to go.

Endometriosis affects approximately 10% of women of reproductive age, which corresponds to around 130,000 women in Denmark. On average, it takes about 8 years from when a woman experiences the first symptoms of endometriosis to when a diagnosis is made.

The annual healthcare costs related to endometriosis are estimated to be 9 billion DKK in Denmark, two-thirds of which can be attributed to lost productivity in the labor market.

Amani Meaidi

Doctor. Researcher. #RoccamoreRebel

The fight for safe contraception. Amani Meaidi is the co-founder of SafeChoice, a nationwide research project that maps the side effects of hormonal contraception. Her award-winning research has improved women's health in Denmark and brought attention to safe and informed choices.

She has contributed to a 60% reduction in unnecessary surgical procedures after medical abortions. In collaboration with the Capital Region of Denmark, she developed an e-learning course that has trained hundreds of gynecologists and nurses, making medical abortion safer for Danish women.

Amani’s research has revealed significant differences between the types of hormonal IUDs available on the market. She found that the low-dose IUD increases the risk of life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, while the high-dose IUD increases the risk of depression. The safest option is a medium-dose IUD.

Her research also shows that combining birth control pills with painkillers such as ibuprofen increases the risk of blood clots sixfold. Amani fights for women to be able to make healthcare choices based on evidence and for women’s health to be taken as seriously as men’s.

Bias in research design means that women only make up 30% of participants in clinical trials, resulting in treatments that are primarily based on male data

-NLM National Library of Medicine.

The numbers speak for themselves

🔍 Only 1%* of all medical research focuses on women-specific diseases, despite women making up half of the world’s population.

🔍 Women live 25%* more of their lives in poor health than men, which is equivalent to having an average of 9 more years of illness in their lives.

🔍 Women are diagnosed, on average, four years* later than men, which can lead to delayed treatment and worsened disease progression.

🔍 Science is still dominated by The Male Default, where research and treatments primarily focus on the male body.*

Women are generally diagnosed four years later than men, and data shows how diseases that primarily affect women do not receive funding proportional to their disease burden, compared to the funding for diseases that primarily affect men.

We understand, diagnose, and treat a heart attack based on how a blood clot develops and behaves in a man—not a woman, and this is true for many common diseases that can affect both genders.

To improve women’s health, we need to conduct more research on diseases that specifically affect women and much more on how general diseases affect women differently than men. The future must be equal for everyone, including when it comes to health.