What We Don’t See, We Don’t Solve: The Cultural Blind Spots in Women's Health

Kate Fagan wasn’t talking about women’s health. But she could have been.

While reflecting on the underfunding and undervaluing of women’s sports, she made a point that echoes far beyond the playing field: when we don’t decide something matters, we don’t invest in making it better.

That’s the exact dynamic we see in women’s health—whether it’s research, clinical care, policy, or media coverage. And if we want better care, we need better storytelling. Not in the sense of marketing spin, but in the sense of narrative investment—the kind that sets stakes, creates visibility, and drives action.

🏃‍♀️ What Women’s Sports Reveal About Systemic Blind Spots

In the TED Radio Hour episode, Kate Fagan described a dynamic she called “gender bland” commentary: when men cover women’s sports with no depth, no storylines, and no preparation. When those segments fail to attract viewers, the blame is put on the sport itself—not on the flat storytelling. But if the same happened with a men’s game, they’d try again—with better prep, better angles, and better stakes.

The same thing happens in women’s health.

When research on endometriosis or PMDD is inconclusive, it’s not because these conditions aren’t real—it’s because they’re biologically complex and historically underprioritized. We haven’t built the right frameworks, tools, or study designs to account for that complexity. And instead of addressing the limitations in our systems, the burden often falls back on women—labeled as too emotional, too vague, or too difficult to treat.

This isn’t about a lack of interest—it’s about a lack of infrastructure, investment, and intentionality. And it reveals a deeper cultural blind spot: we’ve haven’t treated women’s health as a enough of a critical scientific priority.

📉 From Sidelines to Waiting Rooms: What’s Missing?

Sports blossom when they have stakes and storylines—the Olympic gold medal, the jersey you root for, the underdog tale you follow. And men’s sports have generations of this. Women’s health, on the other hand, often lacks both.

Let’s look at a few examples:

➤ Endometriosis

The stakes: infertility, chronic pain, school and work disruptions, and lost wages.
The storylines: largely absent. Many women hear about the condition for the first time years into suffering. Even fewer understand what treatments are available—or why diagnosis takes an average of 7-10 years.

➤ Autoimmune Disease

Over 80% of autoimmune patients are women. Yet clinical trials rarely center female biology, and diagnoses are delayed or dismissed.
The stakes: fatigue, organ damage, years on ineffective meds.
The storylines: confusion and invisibility.

➤ Pelvic and Sexual Pain

The stakes: chronic pain, loss of intimacy, mental health struggles, and avoidance of care.
The storylines: still hidden in whispers—not public health campaigns.

Pelvic and pain with sex have many possible causes—endometriosis, vulvodynia, hormonal changes, trauma—but few clear diagnostics. Short appointments, cultural taboos, and gaps in provider training mean sexual health is rarely asked about, and many women feel ashamed to speak up. Even common procedures like IUD insertions went unmanaged for years—ACOG’s pain guidance only arrived in 2025. The real question isn’t just why does it hurt?—it’s why did it take so long to acknowledge that pain matters?

📣 Why This Isn’t Just a Science Problem—It’s a Culture Problem

Women often blame themselves for their pain. You’ve heard these before or said them yourself:

• Why didn’t I speak up sooner?

• Maybe I’m just stressed.

• I should’ve advocated harder.

But you can’t self-advocate your way out of a structurally underfunded system. You can’t “lean in” to get a clinical trial redesigned.

That’s why this goes beyond medicine. This is about how we frame value.

We’ve long said that women’s health is “underfunded” or “under-researched.” That’s true—but incomplete. The reason it’s underfunded is because we don’t see the stakes. We don’t know the story. And so we let it slide.

Until it’s your daughter who can’t get out of bed because of period pain.
Your wife who’s cycling through meds for unexplained autoimmune flares.
Your mother who spent a decade misdiagnosed.

Then it becomes urgent. Personal. Unacceptable.

🔁 We Need a Cultural Rerun—With Better Scripts

Here’s the kicker: when men’s sports don’t land, they get another shot. A new angle. Better storytelling. Yet when women’s sports don’t land, we scrap them.

When a man’s treatment plan doesn’t work, it’s refined and finding a cure is prioritized. Yet when a woman’s doesn’t, she’s told she’s noncompliant. Don’t believe me? Viagra was launch in 1998, but the first “female Viagra,” Addyi, was launch in 2015.

The problem isn’t just the data. It’s the narrative framing that tells us what deserves refinement—and what doesn’t.

🧭 The Fempower Health Perspective: Bridging the Gap

At Fempower Health, we believe that solving women’s health isn’t just about more studies or new tools (though we need both). It’s about changing the culture that determines who gets heard, who gets funded, and who gets prioritized.

We exist to bridge the patient-doctor gap—and to connect it to the broader systems shaping care: policy, pharma, venture capital, and media.

Because what gets watched, gets funded. What gets funded, gets studied. And what gets studied, gets solved.

✅ TL;DR: 3 Things We Can Learn from Women’s Sports

1. Invest in the storylines. If we don’t show why women’s health matters, it stays invisible.

2. Define the stakes. It’s not “just a period” or “just hormones”—it’s fertility, function, dignity, and dollars.

3. Refuse to settle for gender-bland care. Women’s health deserves precision, not pity.

📩 Want to Help Change the Narrative?

Join the Fempower Health newsletter for weekly insights, interviews, and tools to advocate for better care—from exam rooms to boardrooms. Or join our private Slack community for expert discussion and collaboration.

Let’s stop treating women’s health like charity. It matters and we need the attention and investment dollars to show this.