On October 16th, 2024, the Partnership for Women’s Health Research Canada (PWHR) in collaboration with PWHR partner the Women's Health Research Institute (WHRI), hosted the Beyond the Binary National Knowledge Exchange. This event brought together more than 200 attendees including trainees, researchers, as well as representatives from government and community organizations. The Beyond the Binary in Canada Guide is available in both English and French. 

The event sparked a conversation about how the guide can be used to:

• Educate the research community about the importance of gender inclusive considerations in research. 

• Enter into conversations about gender-related health inequities people are experiencing.

• Establish that trans, nonbinary, gender fluid and gender diverse people need to be included in research. 

• Engage with community. Those with living experience of the inequities we aim to address should be actively involved as partners in research.

Read the summary article and discuss the Guide with your teams and how you can implement the recommendations into your own research to increase gender inclusivity!

On November 1st, the Women's Health Research Institute (WHRI) launched the HER-BC (Health and Economics Research on Midlife Women in BC) report at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Health Care Forum. This report, created in partnership with BC Women’s Health Foundation and Pacific Blue Cross, is a first-of-its-kind study uncovering critical insights on the health, work, and care impacts of menopause.

With over 2,000 BC participants sharing their experiences, the report offers key findings and five recommendations focused on education, healthcare collaboration, flexibility, responsibility, and further research. This has been followed by media interviews, news stories, and more.

Explore our recap article to learn takeaways from the HER-BC report and highlights from the Health Care Forum, and discover what you can do next to support healthy aging for midlife women through the menopause transition in BC.

Pregnant women in Canada have a new place to look for evidence-based information on the safety of prescription medications the Healthy Pregnancy Hub. The new site includes a bilingual library, infographics, videos and podcasts, as well as a search function. 

The site is based on research from the Canadian Mother-Child Cohort, led by Dr. Anick Bérard. The cohort examines gestational medication use and the frequency of prematurity, low birth weight, major malformations and multiple births in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec.

Nearly 70 per cent of pregnant women take medications, but there is little clinical trial evidence available about their impact on this population because pregnant women are usually excluded as clinical trial subjects, according to Alberta Principal Applicant and WCHRI member Dr. Padma Kaul.