Guide
The women's health data gap: what it is and why it persists
Women were excluded from research for decades, and the evidence base still carries it. What the record actually shows, and where the gap sits today.
Women's health research, in practice
Written for the people who run studies and the women who take part in them.
Start with a guide
Guide
Getting paid to take part in health research: the complete guide
What paid health research actually involves, what it pays, how to spot a real study from a scam, and what happens to your answers.
Guide
Recruiting for women's health research: the complete guide
Why women's health studies are harder to fill than most, and the practical ways research teams in the UK solve it.
Latest
For researchers
How to find participants for a study when the condition is rare
Sample sizes fall apart when the condition is uncommon or stigmatised. Here are the recruitment routes that work, what each one costs you, and where bias creeps in.
Industry
Why endometriosis still takes years to diagnose
The average wait for an endometriosis diagnosis in the UK is measured in years, not months. The causes are structural, and they shape who ends up in the research too.
For participants
Do you pay tax on research study payments in the UK?
Study payments are not wages, but that does not always mean they are tax free. Here is how the money is usually treated, and when it might matter for benefits.
Industry
The menstrual cycle is still treated as noise in clinical research
Controlling for cycle phase is easier than studying it. That choice has quietly removed a variable that changes drug response, pain and symptom reporting.
For participants
What happens to your health data when you take part in research
Who sees your answers, what the law requires, and the rights you have over information you have already given.
For participants
How to tell if a paid research study is legitimate
Real studies and scams use the same adverts. Here are the checks that separate them in under two minutes.
Industry
Why women were left out of clinical trials, and what changed
From the 1977 FDA guidance to the 1993 Revitalization Act and after. The decisions, the reasoning, and what still has not been fixed.
Industry
The gender pain gap: what the evidence actually shows
The claim that women's pain is taken less seriously is well evidenced. Here is what the research shows, and where the picture is more complicated.
For participants
How much do paid research studies pay in the UK?
Realistic rates by study type, why some pay far more than others, and whether the money counts as income.
For researchers
How much to pay research participants in the UK
A defensible way to set incentives, what ethics committees look for, and why women's health studies often need to pay more.
For researchers
UK GDPR and health data in research recruitment
Special category data, lawful bases, anonymisation and the paperwork your ethics committee will ask for, in plain language.
For researchers
How to write screening criteria for menopause studies
Perimenopause has no single test, so your screener has to do the work. Here is wording that separates the stages without asking women to self-diagnose.
For researchers
Practical guidance on recruiting, screening, paying and protecting participants in women's health studies.
For participants
What taking part in paid health research is really like, and how to do it safely.
Industry
The women's health data gap, the evidence behind it, and what the field is doing about it.