In 2000, Marcia Killien and colleagues published “Involving Minority and Underrepresented Women in Clinical Trials: The National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health,” hereafter “Involving Women,” in the Journal of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Medicine. Killien and colleagues address the historical exclusion of women from participation in medical research studies and difficulties in generalizing the results of studies that exclude women. They propose strategies to improve participation of minority and underrepresented women in clinical studies and identify systemic barriers such as mistrust, lack of access, and cultural insensitivity that have historically excluded those populations from clinical trials. The article emphasizes the necessity of inclusive research to ensure that medical advancements benefit all women equitably and suggests strategies to achieve more inclusive clinical research practices.

In 2021, Dorte Glintborg, Guy T’Sjoen, Pernille Ravn, and Marianne Skovsager Anderson published “Management of Endocrine Disease: Optimal Feminizing Hormone Treatment in Transgender People,” hereafter “Optimal Feminizing HT,” in the European Journal of Endocrinology. Glintborg and her colleagues compiled information regarding the safe administration of feminizing gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy, or GAHT. Feminizing GAHT uses hormones and medications that alter the effects of hormones in the body to spur development of secondary female characteristics and may also include the suppression of secondary male characteristics. Proper administration of GAHT can greatly improve the quality of life for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, which is defined as a sense of distress due to a person’s assigned gender not aligning with their gender identity. By providing an up-to-date overview of current and developing practices, “Optimal Feminizing HT” provides physicians with knowledge relevant to tailoring feminizing GAHT to individual patients.

In 1935, US-based physicians Irving Freiler Stein and Michael Leo Leventhal published “Amenorrhea Associated with Bilateral Polycystic Ovaries,” hereafter “Amenorrhea,” in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology based on their clinical experience with seven female patients. In their article, Stein and Leventhal report finding a correlation between a lack of menstruation for a prolonged period, or amenorrhea, in the women and the presence of bilateral polycystic ovaries, in which cysts form in both ovaries. Stein and Leventhal theorize that such cysts form due to hormonal imbalances, which makes their presence indicative of an endocrine, or hormonal, disorder. That explanation contested a widely held belief at the time that inflammation caused amenorrhea. “Amenorrhea” was one of the first publications to propose a hormonal explanation for bilateral polycystic ovaries and to describe the cluster of symptoms that became the basis for diagnosing what later became known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS, an endocrine disorder that affects five to eleven percent of women globally per year.

In 1993, physicians and researchers Phillip Low and Rondald Schondorf published a study titled “Idiopathic Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: An Attenuated Form of Acute Pandysautonomia,” hereafter “Idiopathic POTS” in the journal Neurology. Low and Schondorf reviewed the medical charts of patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. Those patients demonstrated signs of tachycardia, or rapid heart rate, upon assuming an upright position as well as symptoms of dizziness, lethargy, and gastrointestinal, or stomach-related, issues. Those symptoms were idiopathic, meaning that they could not be explained by a defined medical condition. In “Idiopathic POTS,” Low and Schondorf clarified the diagnostic criteria of and detailed potential causative mechanisms for POTS. “Idiopathic POTS” characterized POTS, which affects 0.2 percent of the global population as of 2026, as a condition that presents with symptoms of tachycardia upon standing, fatigue, lightheadedness, and gastrointestinal issues.

In 1998, physician John E. Nestler and colleagues published “Effects of Metformin on Spontaneous and Clomiphene-Induced Ovulation in the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome,” hereafter “Metformin,” in the New England Journal of Medicine. Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is an endocrine, or hormone-related, disorder that affects one in ten women of reproductive age, is characterized by symptoms such as an irregular menstrual cycle and high androgen levels, and can lead to infertility, or the inability to become pregnant. In the article, the authors report on the results of a randomized control trial they conducted in which they administered the insulin-lowering medication metformin to a group of thirty-five obese infertile female patients with PCOS, and compared them to twenty-six women receiving a placebo to see if metformin could improve spontaneous or drug-induced ovulation rates. They found that it could. As of 2026, “Metformin” is one of the most cited articles supporting metformin’s usage as a second-line treatment for infertility in women with PCOS.

In 2008, the Palestinian Ministry of Health published the Mother and Child Health Handbook, herafter the Handbook, to help improve health outcomes for pregnant women in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestine. The Handbook is a portable health record and information booklet that women can use to record and track health information from pregnancy through early childhood and across health providers. It includes templates for recording health data as well as information on proper growth milestones and healthy lifestyle choices. Each woman receives one Handbook during her pregnancy. Development of the Handbook occurred during a time when pregnant women were unable to access health facilities or receive necessary care due to regional conflicts. Since the Palestinian Ministry of Health began distributing the Handbook in Palestine in 2008, maternal and infant mortality rates have diminished around 46% and 35%, respectively, supporting the idea that providing women with basic prenatal and postnatal health information is an effective intervention for improving maternal and infant health.