Three experts in the field of women's health came together on Monday evening to bring attention to a problem plaguing American women - the lack of research in women's health.
The audience of about 60, consisting mostly of professors and graduate students, sat attentively in Rackham Auditorium as speakers addressed the difficulties of studying women's health. The public event was titled "Future Challenges in Women's Health - Three Perspectives."
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, an associate Psychology professor who studies depression in women, said that research regarding women's health is overlooked by mainstream researchers.
"Research (of women's health) doesn't keep up," Nolen-Hoeksema said. "It either doesn't exist or it's highly contradictory."
Nolen-Hoeksema said that although it has been established that women are more prone to being depressed than men, the question, no research has explained the discrepancy. A "desperate need for hard-core research" is apparent, she said.
Nolen-Hoeksema recommended that undergraduate students interested in health issues get a broad education in which they explore more than one subject area. Because undergraduate students often specify their interests early on, women's health is usually ignored, she said.
"It's too bad that undergrads are narrowly focused early in their careers," Nolen-Hoeksema said. "Science needs people to be more broadly based."
Stanford University Health Research and Policy Prof. Jennifer Kelsey said the causes and consequences of disease are not the same for men and women
She stressed the importance of documenting and understanding reasons for gender differences and their relationship to diseases that affect both sexes, but have only been studied in men.
Cynthia Myntti, an international health researcher from the University of Minnesota, said that research agendas may not serve women's needs because the right questions are often missed. Instead, research questions and answers seem "obvious."
Myntti said she sees a "wide-open future for people who are interested in women's health." Due to an increase in funding, women's-health researchers are able to question often-overlooked topics that are specific to women, she said.
"Women are one-half of the population of this town, state, world and their health affects productivity, economic growth, and quality of life," Myntti said.
A second women's-health event will be held tonight in the Michigan League Ballroom at 7 p.m. The event includes a keynote address and presentations of graduate students' research.
BOHDAN DAMIAN CAP/Daily
Cynthia Myntti, former co-director at the Center on Women and Policy at the University of Minnesota, spoke on women's health at Rackham Auditorium Monday.