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Objectives: To assist with planning a congressionally requested conference on women's health research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) invited comments to characterize public concerns related to any or all of the specified public health issues: maternal morbidity and mortality (MMM); stagnant rates of cervical cancer survival; and the growing incidence of chronic debilitating conditions in women (CDCW). This analysis summarizes public priorities in women's health research. Materials and Methods: All comments received in response to a request for information were open coded and a master list of keywords was created, and comments were categorized. Comments addressing CDCW were categorized using a conceptual framework developed by the NIH. Results: Two hundred forty-seven comments were coded and analyzed. One hundred four comments (42%) addressed MMM; 182 comments (73%) discussed CDCW; and 27 comments (10%) addressed cervical cancer. Comments focused on CDCW most frequently addressed female-specific conditions (83%). The 10 most frequently identified keywords in order of frequency from the manual coding were as follows: (1) MMM, (2) racial disparities, (3) access to care, (4) provider training, (5) mental health, (6) Black or African American women, (7) screening, (8) quality of care, (9) time to diagnosis, and (10) social determinants of health. Conclusions: Comments demonstrate a broad range of concerns related to the health of women, including MMM, CDCW, and cervical cancer. A wide array of commenters included patients, advocacy groups, and academic and professional organizations originating from geographically diverse locations. These comments reflect a strong desire from the public to prioritize research on the health of women.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) was established in 1990. With the completion of the office's 30th anniversary year, we look back and recount some of the key events and overall zeitgeist that led to ORWH's formation, and how it became the focal point at the nation's primary biomedical research agency for coordinating research on science to improve the health of women. We discuss ORWH's mission and signature programs and the bold vision that drives the NIH-wide strategic, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach to research on women's health and efforts to promote women in biomedical careers. Also discussed are several of the many scientific advances in research on the health of women, policy innovations and their effects, and career advancements made by women in medicine and related scientific fields. We also highlight key challenges for the health of women, the need to continue pushing for equity in biomedical research careers, and NIH's approach to addressing these problems to ensure progress for the next 30 years and beyond.

A little over 5 years ago, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the intention to develop policies to require applicants to report plans to balance male and female cells and animals in preclinical investigations. Soon thereafter, the NIH issued a request for information from the scientific community and consulted with various stakeholders. The feedback received was considered during development of policy requiring the consideration of sex as a biological variable (SABV) in NIH-funded research on vertebrate animals and humans, which went into effect for applications due on or after January 25, 2016. We identified NIH programs related to SABV and reviewed SABV-relevant scientific literature. We find that the application of SABV throughout the research process can serve as a guiding principle to improve the value of biomedical science. The NIH is engaged in ongoing efforts to develop resources to help investigators consider SABV in their research. We also provide an update on lessons learned, highlight ways that different disciplines consider SABV, and describe the opportunities for scientific discovery that applying SABV offers. We call on NIH's various stakeholders to redouble their efforts to integrate SABV throughout the biomedical research enterprise. Sex- and gender-aware investigations are critical to the conduct of rigorous and transparent science and the advancement of personalized medicine. This kind of research achieves its greatest potential when sex and gender considerations are integrated into the biomedical research enterprise in an end-to-end manner, from basic and preclinical investigations, through translational and clinical research, to improved health care delivery.

Sex and gender are critical contributors to overall health and disease, and considering both in research informs the development of prevention strategies and treatment interventions for both men and women. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health sponsored a preconference workshop on this topic at the 24th Annual Women's Health Congress, which was held in Crystal City, VA, in April 2016. The workshop featured presentations by NIH intramural and extramural scientists who presented data on a variety of topics including polycystic kidney disease, vaccine protection, depression, drug addiction, and cardiovascular disease. In this publication, we discuss the major points of each presentation and demonstrate the importance of considering sex and gender in biomedical research.

While women have been well represented in medical school and biomedical doctoral degree programs, they do not comprise half of academic medicine faculty positions. Furthermore, there is a significant paucity of women in academic medicine leadership positions, as evidenced by the fact that only 16% of dean positions at United States Medical schools are filled by women. In this commentary, the authors review the state of women in academic medicine and argue that increased representation of women in the academic workforce will lead to economic gains, increased scientific discovery, and improvements to women's health.

Women of color face unique health challenges that differ significantly from those of other women and men of color. To bring these issues to light, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health sponsored a preconference workshop at the 23rd Annual Women's Health Congress, which was held in Washington, DC, in April 2015. The workshop featured presentations by NIH intramural and extramural scientists who provided insight on the disparities of a wide range of conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, the risk of HIV infection, and disability in an aging population. In this study, we highlight the major points of each presentation and the ensuing discussion.

Sex and gender differences have long been a research topic of interest, yet few studies have explored the specific differences in neurological responses between men and women during and after spaceflight. Knowledge in this field is limited due to the significant disproportion of sexes enrolled in the astronaut corps. Research indicates that general neurological and sensory differences exist between the sexes, such as those in laterality of amygdala activity, sensitivity and discrimination in vision processing, and neuronal cell death (apoptosis) pathways. In spaceflight, sex differences may include a higher incidence of entry and space motion sickness and of post-flight vestibular instability in female as opposed to male astronauts who flew on both short- and long-duration missions. Hearing and auditory function in crewmembers shows the expected hearing threshold differences between men and women, in which female astronauts exhibit better hearing thresholds. Longitudinal observations of hearing thresholds for crewmembers yield normal age-related decrements; however, no evidence of sex-related differences from spaceflight has been observed. The impact of sex and gender differences should be studied by making spaceflight accessible and flying more women into space. Only in this way will we know if increasingly longer-duration missions cause significantly different neurophysiological responses in men and women.

Clinical research investigates mechanisms of human disease, interventions, or new technologies, but pregnant women are often excluded from clinical studies. Few studies, beyond research on pregnancy, are designed to address questions relevant to pregnant women. A recent National Institutes of Health workshop considered the barriers and opportunities in conducting clinical research studies enrolling pregnant women.