Women's Health Research Cluster

Whether you're a researcher, trainee, clinician, advocate, or a passionate believer that women deserve better health, there’s a place for you here.
👉 Join today and be part of the movement advancing women’s health equity.
ow.ly/xUS150XCKeA

In our new episode, Dr. Gina Ogilvie explains HPV, vaccination, self-collection, vaccine hesitancy, and global health equity.

🎧 Listen here: ow.ly/uxEo50XBibP
#WomensHealth #HPV #CervicalCancer

It’s Women’s Brain Health Day 🧠
Women face higher rates of dementia & depression, yet research still leaves major gaps. We can change that.
Learn more + access advocacy tools: womenshealthresearchcluster.com/advocacy/

Only 1 week until Dr. Deena Walker joins us to discuss how thyroid hormone signaling contributes to sex differences in addiction.
🔗 Register today: ow.ly/hJ3p50XA1A5

Epilepsy affects women differently, but these differences are often overlooked.
A new WHRC blog breaks down the gaps in care and why women’s physiology must inform treatment.
Read more: ow.ly/iB1u50XyjHr

Join us Dec 8 with Dr. Deena Walker to learn how drugs of abuse disrupt thyroid signaling, how this alters reward pathways, and how a CNS-specific thyromimetic may reduce reward-driven behaviors.

🔗 Register: eventbrite.com/e/thyroid-ho...

#AddictionScience #SexDifferences

Every country needs a national strategy for women's health. In our new episode, Dr. @liisagalea.bsky.social talks with
Jennifer Gillivan about bias in research, and why it’s time to mobilize to equalize.
🎧 Listen here: ow.ly/tsrw50Xy8q9

Demand change. Send a letter to your local representative using our advocacy toolkit! womenshealthresearchcluster.com/advocacy/

A new report from the McKinsey Health Institute shows the women’s health gap isn’t closing.
Want to help push for change?
📣 Use our Advocacy Toolkit to take action today: womenshealthresearchcluster.com/advocacy/
#WomensHealth #HealthEquity

This week on the podcast, Dr. @liisagalea.bsky.social talks to Prof Siobhain O'Mahony about gut health, and why it should matter to women.
🎧 Listen now to Episode 7
ow.ly/QeYw50Xu32Z
#WomensHealth #Microbiome #GutHealth

Did you miss the Nov 14th presentations on Hormonal Contraceptives? Want to catch up on the latest trainee research? The recording is up on our YouTube channel!
Watch now: ow.ly/pr5h50Xt27F

#HormonalContraceptives #BirthControl

Interestingly, XX/XY organoids showed sex-biased gene and protein expression!

Estradiol/induced gene and protein changes were also present in a sex-specific manner - with magnitude of effects differing depending on cell line.

Such fascinating work 👏 Thank you so much @ncndgroup.bsky.social!!

So how well do organoids capture sex differences during neurodevelopment?

@ncndgroup.bsky.social found that organoids generated from XX vs XY cell lines were generally similar across gross morphology, tissue patterning, and synaptic/network development.

Using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), gene editing can result in different neurons, glial cells, and organoids.

@ncndgroup.bsky.social have been using cerebral organoids as a model system to study brain development 🧠

Why should we care about biological sex? Not only do females make up >50% of the population - they also show greater prevalence across multiple disorders. There are also sex differences in susceptibility and treatment response to diseases.

Some of these diffs may have originated from development 🔍

Looking forward to Dr. Srivastava’s (@ncndgroup.bsky.social) talk for today’s #WHSS on the latest research from his group on using #brain #organoids to study #sexdifferences and effects of #estradiol during human #neurodevelopment 🤩 Follow along for some highlights!

⏳ One week left!
Apply for WHRC’s $250 Trainee Travel Award to support your conference travel.

Deadline: Nov 21, 2025
🔗 ow.ly/uqNb50XjWiO

Triple-negative breast cancer is the deadliest subtype, and it needs new solutions.
A promising tactic: remove the “oil” that fuels tumour growth.
Read the blog: ow.ly/zhjU50XrNma
#CancerResearch #WomensHealth

HC also lowered levels of an anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-4. IL-10 was also reduced in HC-treated rats, but only in adolescent rats.

These unique signatures in adolescent HC-treated rats highlight age-specific effects of HC and point to potential targets for future research and interventions.

Jesse identified different patterns of how brain regions were activated in response to stress with HC treatment.

The amygdala was highly influential within the brain network of HC-treated rats. The frontal cortex was less influential only within the network of HC-treated adolescent rats!

6) Last but not least, Jesse Lacasse is up!

Why are adolescents seemingly more vulnerable to depression associated with hormonal contraceptive (HC) use? We can look at biomarkers of depression to get at this question, including HPA axis regulation, functional connectivity, and neuroinflammation.

Future studies incorporating larger samples and more intensive repeated measures (i.e. longitudinal studies) will be important to provide more insight in these relationships.

5) Melanie Kowalczyk examined women who were taking oral contraceptives (OCs) and those who were not (thus had natural menstrual cycles).

OC use was not linked to daily anxiety levels - but was linked to higher levels of daily depression and lower levels of daily self-esteem.

Also, assessing the terminology used throughout the curriculum, "protection" was often used instead of more specific language.

These findings highlight important considerations for how best to advance education curricula for the future.

There are gaps in Ontario's 2019 Health and Physical Education curriculum. The risk-centered framework used leave teachers responsible for facilitating youth's access to contraception. Some teachers reinforced the curriculum's risk-centered framework in their school, which may perpetuate stigma.

4) Holly MacDonald is up next, sharing her research that analyzed Ontario’s 2019 Health and Physical Education curriculum to understand how it might facilitate access to contraception for youth in grades seven and eight.

It is pertinent to note that contraception use patterns may reflect changes in media coverage in addition to introduction of new methods and policies.

It will be important for future research to continue to monitor these trends and investigate influences of contraceptives on other health outcomes!

3) Alice Mei presents a research project looking at the incidence and prevalence of LNG-IUD (intrauterine device) use in Canada.

After its introduction in 2001, the use of the LNG-IUD increased and oral contraceptive use decreased. Irreversible contraceptive use have also been gradually declining.

It is possible that the androgenic actions of LNG may be preventing some effects of gonadal hormones, leading to diminishing of the sex differences originally observed.

LNG increased anxiety-like behaviour in female rats, eliminating the #sexdifference observed without LNG treatment in these tests.

However, in a social interaction test, female rats showed greater anxiety-like behaviour - LNG again eliminated the sex difference.