SGO Hosts Women’s Health Advocacy Events in the Nation’s Capital
Women’s Health Policy Roundtable
On Feb. 12, 2025, leaders from SGO, ACOG, AGOS, WFRC, and Green Journal convened for a roundtable discussion to collaborate in advocacy efforts to promote continued support for women’s health research, funding, and training pipelines. Given that approximately only 1% of National Institute of Health (NIH) funding is directed towards Obstetrics and Gynecology Departments, collaboration with concerted effort to ensure future funding mechanisms is critical. Funding for women’s health research is necessary to close knowledge gaps present in practice guidelines. Further, policy efforts are needed to ensure access to women’s health care, and reduce barriers such as insurer, preauthorization or other factors inhibiting delivery of care to all.
NASEM Report
In 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Panel performed a sweeping review of current federal resources for women’s health research and recommended that NIH should form a new Institute to address the gaps in women’s health research (WHR) and create a new interdisciplinary research fund. The director of NIH should develop and implement a transparent, biennial process to set priorities for WHR. The NIH should augment existing and develop new programs to attract researchers and support career pathways for scientists through all stages of the careers of women’s health researchers.
Capitol Hill Day & Congressional Briefing
On Feb. 13, 2025, SGO current, past and future president-elect in conjunction with leaders from the SGO Health Policy and Socioeconomic Committee and SGO staff convened on the Hill for the first in-person Capitol Hill Day since 2019. Unlike nearly all other solid malignancies in women for which cancer rates are declining, endometrial cancer incidence continues to rise yearly in the U.S. for all populations. It is estimated that by 2030, endometrial cancer will rival colorectal cancer as the third most common cancer for women in the U.S., and the number of endometrial-cancer related deaths will surpass that even for ovarian cancer per year. Despite this significant burden of disease, NIH funding for endometrial cancer in 2023 was only $83 million, in contrast to breast cancer at over $8 billion.
Furthermore, endometrial cancer remains the only cancer within the top 5 most common cancers that does not have a dedicated line item within the Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDRMP) for cancer directed research. If past is prologue, then the DoD CDMRP Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) sets a successful example, resulting in over 130 patents with 1300 publications, and the discovery of PARP-inhibitors which has extended survival by years in patients with homologous recombinant deficient ovarian tumors including those with BRCA mutations. Furthermore, DoD funding will potentially benefit the increasing number of women veterans, who will soon comprise 1/5 of the Veterans Affairs (VA) population, with gynecologic cancer cases now accounting for 1% of cancer cases in the U.S. With the DoD’s impressive OCRP track record, it seems obvious that the need is clear for a dedicated line item for endometrial cancer and potential for benefit for endometrial cancer population is great.
Trying to fill this funding void is imperative, to ensure that the rising endometrial cancer incidence does not further escalate, and to ensure that there is dedicated attention, research effort and resources to treat our patients. This is especially true for those with treatment-resistant disease, but also important for developing and implementing strategies to identify those at most risk and prevent their development of cancer.
Thus, SGO leaders convened on a brisk snow-laden wintry day on the Hill to participate in 19 meetings with members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. In particular, we advocated for increased funding specific towards endometrial cancer research, for molecularly targeted therapeutics, population-based studies, prevention and cancer care delivery. Further, we advocated for increased support for Building Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) career awards development pipeline in women’s health research, specifically within the National Cancer Institute (NCI), since it has not previously been a part of that funding agency. As the federal funding climate and infrastructure of NIH and related agencies will likely continue to evolve soon, we must identify opportunities to continue to dedicate funds and infrastructure towards the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of gynecologic cancers. Bearing in mind that every 5 minutes, another person in the U.S. will be diagnosed with gynecologic cancer, we cannot leave an ever-expanding population behind. Please join us in this effort.
We’ve captured these inspiring moments, and we invite you to browse the full photo album on Flickr. Whether you attended in person or want to see the movement in action, these images further tell the story of our collective efforts.
Emily Ko, MD, MSCR, and Mark Shahin, MD, FACOG, FACS, are Gynecologic Oncologists and Co-Chairs of the Health Policy and Socioeconomic Committee.