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VA New England Healthcare System

 

Veterans' Healthy Living, Spring 2013

VHL spring 2013 cover
Print | Web

VA Increases Research on Women's Health Issues

Woman wearing a grey sweater

"We, at VA, must be visionary and agile enough to anticipate and adjust not only to the coming increase in women Veterans, but also to the accompanying complexity and longevity of treatment needs they will bring with them." Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, July 16, 2011

March was Women's History Month - but women Veterans deserve the best health care we can provide them all year long for their historic contributions!

One way we do that is by participating in research targeted to the unique needs of this growing segment of the Veteran population, which is expected to exceed two million women by 2020. In fiscal year 2011, for example, VA funded 60 studies on women's health. One is a five-year study about the needs of female Veterans as they age and will include about 10,000 women Vietnam Veterans. Other VA research has helped provide insight into mental health issues, military sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury, homelessness, smoking, and posttraumatic stress among women Veterans.

In 2012, the VA Central Western Massachusetts, VA Connecticut, and VA Boston Health Care Systems joined other VA centers across the nation in the Women's Health Research Network. This group will promote further research into issues like pregnancy, parenting, infant care, exposure to trauma (whether related to combat or military sexual trauma), and patterns of illness for women Veterans versus males. Additionally, VA is examining breast and cervical cancers, the role of hormones in stroke and aging, and neurobiological changes in women who have gone through severe trauma.

While the goal of VA research is to improve health care for women in the military, the findings can benefit all women because VA can follow women's health conditions for periods of 40 or 50 years. Many diseases common among women—such as cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, and depression - are the focus of studies and clinical trials at numerous VA sites.

Women Veterans have selflessly served our country for decades. We thank them for that and for their ongoing contribution to research on women's health issues.

For real stories women Veterans told as part of the Veterans History Project, visit http://womenshistorymonth.gov and look for the link to The Women of Four Wars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veterans' Healthy Living Fall 2013

Alfred Pouliot | Misconceptions | Native American Veterans | Women's Health | News

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