Women's Health Plan: Phase Two (2026 - 2029)

3 The Health of Women and Girls – Cross-Cutting Actions

Following on from the Women’s Health Plan, these cross-cutting actions continue our commitment to improving women’s health research and data, and to improving the information available to women and girls.

In 2025, we announced our Women’s Health Research Fund, with Scottish Government funding of £250,000, which we will continue in the coming years. We know that we need to understand more about the health of women and girls in Scotland which is why we have included action on a national women’s health survey. In doing so, we are creating better intelligence about the health of women and girls and collecting longitudinal data, allowing us to monitor change over time to help provide the health and care that women need and deserve.

A group of researchers in the University of Edinburgh is proposing a national Health of Women Scottish Research Network aiming to bring together researchers and clinicians across Scotland to:

• Promote collaboration across disciplines and institutions.
• Align with, and help shape, Scottish Government priorities on women’s health.
• Support joint research funding bids, workshops, and policy engagement.

The scope will be deliberately broad - encompassing women’s health across the life course, not limited to reproductive health, and responsive to emerging priorities such as mental health, metabolic health, bone and brain health, cardiovascular risk, and rare or under-researched conditions.

Our aim to improve the information available to women and girls responds to what they have told us, and their need to have access to reliable and trusted health information. As concerns increase about the levels of mis-and-dis information online, providing accurate high-quality information, clearly communicating trusted sources, continues to be essential. We will work to ensure that information reflects the ways women and girls access health advice, whether online, in community settings or via trusted local networks and tailor our approaches to meet diverse needs.

While in recent years public awareness has grown, stigma still shrouds many areas of women’s health. For example, many women still feel unprepared for, and lack clear, reliable information about managing menopause symptoms or pelvic floor dysfunction. Social media has increased the visibility of menopause, but the abundance of information is causing confusion and amplifying misinformation. This has made clinically accurate and accessible menopause resources for women, like NHS Inform, more vital than ever.

We know that not everyone is able, or wants, to access information online. Through carrying out user research with women and girls we aim to provide information that addresses their intersectional needs, in different formats, in a variety of languages with accessible Easy Read and British Sign Language (BSL) versions.

3.1 The Health of Women and Girls – Ambitions, Aims, Actions

Ambition

Our ambition is for a Scotland where health outcomes are equitable across the population, so that all women and girls enjoy the best possible health throughout their lives.

Aims

1. Women’s health data and research will be strengthened.

2. Women and girls will have access to consistent, reliable and accessible information across the life course.

Actions

Cross-cutting

1. The Scottish Government will:

• Run and award a Women’s Health Research Fund with dedicated funding and recurring call every three years.
• Conduct a national survey on women and girls health in Scotland and repeat at five year intervals, using findings to inform policy and service design.

2. The Scottish Government will work with partners to improve women’s health data in Scotland by:

• Working with Health Boards to understand and utilise data at a local level
• Reviewing existing health data to ensure disaggregation by sex as a first step toward intersectional data on women’s health.
• Broadening the availability of data on contraception.

3. The Scottish Government will work with partners to create a minimum data set for menstrual parameters (key metrics that characterise the menstrual cycle including: cycle length, regularity and bleeding volume). This minimum data set will be incorporated into electronic health records, clinical studies and data collection to ensure menstruation is routinely recorded.

4. The Scottish Government will carry out user research with women and girls to inform the development of health information resources, ensuring that they meet the intersectional needs of women and girls in Scotland.

5. The Scottish Government will carry out research to gain deeper insight into the barriers and challenges faced by women in seeking help for health conditions, including public attitudes and contributing factors to societal stigma around women’s health.

Insights gained will inform development of marketing activity that aims to challenge barriers and encourage women to seek help for women’s health conditions, including:

• gynaecological health – including pelvic pain and heavy menstrual bleeding
• peri-menopause/menopause symptoms and management, including sexual problems, vaginal dryness and how to access support and treatment
• pelvic floor and bowel health, including urinary and faecal incontinence and prolapse

6. The Scottish Government will expand the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform by adding information on:

• vulval and vaginal health
• chronic and recurrent Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
• faecal incontinence
• perimenopause and menopause
• bone health, osteoporosis risk and prevention
• pain management for abortion