Sittings · Document

DRAFT REPORT (2025/2074(INI)) 2026-01-07

On gender inequalities in health, specifically as regards gender-specific conditions

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality · Rapporteur: Billy Kelleher

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This draft report by the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality examines gender inequalities in health, focusing on gender-specific conditions. It calls for binding targets, mandatory sex-disaggregated data in EU-funded projects, and dedicated funding for research into conditions such as endometriosis and menopause. It urges the Commission to support Member States in guaranteeing universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, to enshrine these rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and to set up a voluntary EU financial mechanism for abortion care. It asks Member States to integrate gender-sensitive healthcare training into medical curricula and to establish pilot programmes on gender-sensitive healthcare.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution calling for binding targets, mandatory sex-disaggregated data, dedicated funding for gender-specific conditions, and EU support for universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including a financial mechanism for abortion care.

Key points

  1. Stresses that gender inequalities in health stem from decades of male-centric medical research, shaping care from diagnostics to treatment.
  2. Highlights that inequalities are compounded by intersectional factors such as socio-economic status, ethnic minority or migrant background, and LGBTQI+ identity, and that gender-specific conditions are underfunded.
  3. Encourages the Commission to include clear and binding targets to address health inequalities and to implement a transparent monitoring system.
  4. Calls on the Commission to introduce measures to address the imbalance in clinical trial participation, noting that women, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and transgender people are under-represented.
  5. Welcomes the EMA's intended guidelines on including pregnant and breastfeeding individuals in clinical trials and urges similar guidelines for other under-represented communities.
  6. Calls on the Commission to make sex-disaggregated data mandatory in all EU-funded projects.
  7. Urges the medical profession to apply a precision-medicine approach and encourages Member States to establish pilot programmes on gender-sensitive healthcare.
  8. Considers it essential that Member States integrate gender-sensitive healthcare training into medical curricula.
  9. Reiterates its call on the Commission to enshrine SRHR and the right to safe and legal abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and to set up a voluntary EU financial mechanism for abortion care.
  10. Deplores that only 10 of 145,983 EU-funded projects have focused on endometriosis and regrets that menopause is not routinely integrated into primary healthcare.
  11. Urges the Commission to use the forthcoming gender equality strategy for 2026-2030 to propose concrete measures prioritising investment in gender-specific conditions.
  12. Supports gender mainstreaming across all relevant policies and the EU budget, and calls for dedicated funding calls for gender-specific conditions and projects to close sex-specific health data gaps.

Who is affected

  • Women, who face systemic inequalities in diagnostics, treatment, and access to care for gender-specific conditions.
  • Pregnant and breastfeeding women, who are under-represented in clinical trials.
  • Transgender people and marginalised communities, who are absent from most clinical trials and face discrimination in healthcare.
  • Member States, which are asked to integrate gender-sensitive training, establish pilot programmes, and guarantee access to SRHR.
  • The Commission, which is urged to set binding targets, mandate sex-disaggregated data, and propose funding measures.

Figures and deadlines

  • 72% of studies on drug trials fail to provide sex and gender-disaggregated data.
  • More than 20 million women in the EU do not have access to safe and legal abortion.
  • Endometriosis affects 10-15% of women of reproductive age.
  • It takes on average 6 to 10 years to diagnose endometriosis.
  • 85% of women experience menopause symptoms; by 2030, an estimated 1.2 billion women will be experiencing menopause globally.
  • The 2022 target of offering cancer screening to at least 90% of those eligible by 2025 is not being met universally across the EU.
  • 14% of LGBTQI+ people have reported experiencing discrimination in healthcare settings.
  • In 2020, only 5% of global research and development funding was allocated to women's health research.

Legal basis: Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union; Articles 8, 9, 151, 153 and 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

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