Ovaries age two to three times faster than any other tissue in the body. Around the age of 50, ovaries give out entirely for most women — they are the only organ that stops functioning during life. Understanding ovarian biology may unlock clues to longevity and health span that could impact everyone, not just women. Yet, they are the least-studied organ.
In biomedical research, male physiology has long been the baseline for all human physiology. Studies with animal models rely mainly on male mice to avoid the complicating factors of reproductive biology. Only in 1993, did the U.S. National Institutes of Health require - by law - to include women and minorities in clinical research.
The lack of attention to women's health "is an astonishing thing," said Jane Metcalfe, CEO and Publisher of proto.life, Co-Founder of Wired, and Chair of the Human Immunome Project, a global nonprofit focused on decoding and modeling the immune system.
Metcalfe spoke with Cure about advancing women's health, especially reproductive health. "Women's health is one of the greatest underserved markets," she said. From heart attacks to gynecological issues such as endometriosis, women struggle to get diagnosed.
Many other health changes for women pivot on the arrival of their menopause. "Once you go through menopause," said Metcalfe, "you then start to experience accelerated aging, and you're much more likely to get osteoporosis, dementia, cardiac disease or depression."
A new, small wave of research and investment aims to unravel the processes underlying ovarian function, fertility and aging and provide innovative choices for supporting women's health throughout their lives. Metcalfe called out four women who lead companies that are advancing ovarian health, expanding fertility options and improving menopause care:
Piraye Beim, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Celmatix, a preclinical-stage biotech with the largest structured dataset on ovarian health and outcomes in the world. The company's drug programs include helping women preserve their fertility through chemotherapy treatments and discovering therapeutics for novel targets with potential in women's health.
Dina Radenkovic, MBBS, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gameto. The company aims to make in vitro fertilization (IVF) cheaper and safer for women with an organoid platform that uses human stem cells to mature oocytes outside the body. The platform also has applications for disease modeling, drug discovery, safety testing, and more.
Alicia Jackson, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Evernow, which focuses on menopause care. The company has amassed more than 100,000 clinically validated health profiles of women's menopausal experiences.
Daisy Robinton, PhD, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Oviva Therapeutics, a company developing first-in-class therapeutics to improve and extend ovarian function, thereby lengthening women's health span.
"Women's health is one of the most exciting fields in medicine right now," said Metcalfe. "We're not limited to great leaps forward in reproductive health, but also all other aspects of our biological systems."
"We have an increasing number of tools and resources, and investments," she added. "Menopause alone could be a $600 billion market if you consider not only pharmaceuticals, but also medical treatments, health and wellness, all the other opportunities for addressing the symptoms and causes of menopause."
So, where's the killer app for menopause? Metcalfe asked how many killer apps might be out there if we only decided and agreed that women deserve support as they go through this very extraordinary change.
"The future of women's health is about giving women agency over their bodies. And we will have the tools to manage, postpone or cancel menopause altogether."