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March 8th is International Women’s Day and to mark the occasion, Bio.News is exploring an under researched field of women’s health – autoimmune diseases – with the Society for Women’s Health Research.
Despite women making up half of the population, women’s health is still woefully researched and underfunded. This is not only to the detriment of women, but also to biotech innovation as a whole. As Bio.News reported in June 2024, “Investments addressing the women’s health gap could add years to life and life to years—and potentially boost the global economy by $1 trillion annually by 2040,” according to the McKinsey Health Institute.
This disparity is even more acute when it comes to autoimmune disease, which affects over 24 million Americans—four out of five (80%) of whom are women, resulting in about $100 billion in treatment costs annually. Despite this statistic, autoimmune disease is often not thought of as a women’s health issue.
In honor of International Women’s Day, Bio.News explores the topic of autoimmune disease in women and spoke with The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) to understand what needs to be done to improve outcomes for women with these diseases and conditions.
What are autoimmune diseases, and why are they more common in women?
There are more than 80 known autoimmune diseases that affect different cells, organs, and tissues throughout the body, explains SWHR. These chronic diseases are caused by a person’s immune system mistakenly attacking the body’s own healthy tissues and organs. These diseases often target the endocrine, digestive, integumentary (hair, skin, and nails), or musculoskeletal systems. None of these diseases currently has a cure – instead, treatments typically focus on symptom management and slowing disease progression.
The rate of autoimmune diseases is on the rise, and about 80% of the patients that are diagnosed are women. Many autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, thyroid disease, lupus, and many others disproportionately affect women. For instance, women are 10x more likely than men to develop Hashimoto’s disease, the most common cause of hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) in the United States, affecting 5 in every 100 Americans. The ratio for lupus is 9 to 1 and for Sjogren’s syndrome, a disorder where the body mistakenly attacks moisture-secreting glands throughout the body, it’s 19 to 1.
The reasons for these disparities are complex, and not completely understood. Researchers have proposed many explanations including epigenetic factors related to the incomplete silencing of the second X chromosome, immunological differences that tend to skew women’s immune responses more towards B- rather than T-cell responses, hormonal differences, biological difference including the potential for microchimerism (e.g., fetal cells that can cross the placenta and enter the mother’s bloodstream), and more. Better understanding why women are disproportionately affected may hold valuable clues for a cure.
“There is so much we still don’t know about autoimmune diseases, sex differences, and women’s health. Increased investment and research in this space has the potential to significantly improve health outcomes for women across the lifespan, while also expanding our understanding of core scientific concepts like immunity, pain, and hormones,” said SWHR President and CEO Kathryn Schubert.
Improving women’s health outcomes
As SWHR notes in its policy agenda, “Improving Outcomes for Women with Autoimmune Diseases and Conditions: A Call to Action,” “key policy measures spanning areas from research to health care access and coverage could yield tremendous benefits that lower health care costs, improve health care quality and access, advance health equity, and improve outcomes.”
Intended to serve as a roadmap for policymakers, the policy agenda outlines key areas of development in the areas of research needs and opportunities; education, awareness and advocacy; and clinical care needs.
“Increasing federal research efforts in this space is critical,” states the organization. “SWHR champions targeted investments in autoimmune research and research on sex as a biological variable related to autoimmune diseases and conditions; research into areas, including, but not limited to:
- the role hormonal changes play in autoimmune risk and symptom severity,
- the biological and environmental mechanisms that affect autoimmune incidence and outcomes across different racial and ethnic populations, and factors that predispose individuals to these diseases; and
- research funding to improve the knowledge base, and drive progress forward.
“With greater research, increased education, and inclusive policy, I know we can make meaningful strides in improving the health of women living with autoimmune diseases in this lifetime,” said Schubert. “Autoimmune diseases are a great example of how vast the work of women’s health is – and how when we study sex differences to advance women’s health, we can actually improve health outcomes for everyone.”
