Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added14. Stresses that the lack of systematic collection of disaggregated data undermines the development of effective, evidence-based policies, including on sexual and reproductive health, and that an exposome approach to research is required; calls for improved collection, harmonisation and use of sex- and gender-disaggregated data, as well as intersectional data, in all areas of health policy, research and innovation, and pilot projects across the EU; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that a strong gender perspective is incorporated into the implementation of the European Health Data Space;

Added15. Commends the work of the EIGE in strengthening the evidence base on women’s health, including through the integration of health-related indicators into the Gender Equality Index; underlines that the EIGE’s research provides clear European added value by improving data comparability, supporting evidence-based policymaking and enabling more targeted, effective and proportionate EU and national policies;

Diagnostics and treatment

Change 4

Changed8.16. Highlights the fact that as a result of systemic underfunding and a lack of research, diagnostic methods and treatments remain male-centric, which can lead to substandard and higher-risk treatment for women, transgender and gender-diverse people, including through a lack of necessary, evidence-, science-based and comprehensive healthcare and the dismissal of pain and symptoms, leading to delayed diagnoses for women and transgender people;and intersex individuals;

Change 5

Changed9.17. Urges the medical profession to apply a precision-medicine approach to treatmenttreatment, in order to complement any measures taken to reduce inequality and increase investment in medical research; encouragescalls on the Member States to establish pilot programmes on gender-sensitive healthcare;healthcare, notably in areas where programmes are non-existent or severely lacking, such as menstrual, perimenopausal, cardiovascular and mental health; points out that fears of misconceptions, misinterpretation of symptoms, judgement and stigmatisation can discourage women from seeking timely medical advice, resulting in avoidable complications and poorer long-term outcomes; calls for measures to be taken to change misperceptions among medical professionals and to address public misconceptions; calls for multidisciplinary collaboration in women’s healthcare to gain a better understanding of gendered health conditions and corresponding gaps in treatment;

Change 6

Removed10. Considers it essential that the Member States integrate gender-sensitive healthcare training into their medical curricula;

Added18. Underlines that medical professionals must act in a non-discriminatory manner; urges the Member States, in close cooperation with the medical profession and educational institutions, to integrate compulsory, gender-sensitive, intersectional and patient-centred healthcare training into their medical, nursing and obstetrics curricula to ensure that medical professionals are equipped to recognise and respond to the specific needs of women and girls, including through training on gender prejudice, on pain management, on SRHR, on the prevention of discrimination, on conditions with a high prevalence in women, on how symptoms and treatment needs may change across hormonal life stages and on the wider recognition of gender-specific symptoms; stresses that such training should also include teaching on gender and cultural sensitivity; underlines that the development of measures to make diagnostic and treatment processes more gender-sensitive and responsive must take full account of real patient experiences;

Added19. Calls on the Commission to encourage the exchange of best practice and knowledge on how the healthcare workforce can be better trained and more attentive to sex- and gender-responsive healthcare; calls for the establishment of a European Reference Network (ERN) on women’s health, building on the model of existing ERNs for rare diseases, to strengthen research collaboration, improve clinical practice and ensure that women’s specific health needs are systematically addressed across the EU;

Added20. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that healthcare systems are equipped to prevent, identify and respond to gender-based violence and to the specific needs of women and girls in vulnerable situations, including through gender-sensitive, patient-centred, trauma-informed care and access to emergency contraception; calls on the Member States to establish clear pathways between health services, social services, and specialised support services for victims and survivors of gender-based violence, in line with Directive 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence and the revision of Directive 2012/29 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime;

Added21. Emphasises that harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, forced abortion, forced sterilisation, the denial of abortion care, intersex genital mutilation, obstetric and gynaecological violence, and malpractice in medical settings are forms of gender-based violence; expresses concern about medically unnecessary treatments, often carried out without informed consent, which particularly affect intersex women, as well as coercive medical interventions, such as forced sterilisation, which remain a reality for women with disabilities in the EU; deplores the fact that, despite its commitment under the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, the Commission has failed to publish its recommendation on the prevention of harmful practices against women and girls; urges the Commission to do so swiftly; stresses that this recommendation must complement Directive (EU) 2024/1385; calls for the establishment of independent complaint, reporting and accountability mechanisms and data collection systems in this regard;

Added22. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise, prevent and address gynaecological and obstetric violence, including non-consensual, abusive or coercive medical procedures, verbal abuse, discrimination, dismissive treatment, such as delaying the treatment of or refusing to acknowledge women’s reproductive health concerns, and violations of bodily autonomy in gynaecological and obstetric care, as a form of gender-based violence and denial of women’s rights; notes that examples of gynaecological violence include the performance of perineal or episiotomy cuts during childbirth without explicit consent or informed agreement, and routine dismissal of women’s reported pain or symptoms in the context of reproductive health; notes the severe impacts that such violence may have on women’s and intersex people’s physical, mental and social health; deplores the fact that, despite recent EU literature on the existence and reality of violence in gynaecological and obstetric settings, the Commission has not explicitly recognised obstetric and gynaecological violence as a form of gender-based violence; urges the Commission to establish clear legal definitions and prevention strategies, in this regard; calls on the Member States to explicitly recognise and combat all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence;

Added23. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote respectful maternity care and to establish complaint mechanisms, data collection and training for healthcare professionals, regarding obstetric violence;

Added24. Calls for mandatory training for healthcare professionals, emergency responders and law enforcement authorities on identifying, responding to and documenting cases of gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation, in a sex- and gender-responsive and victim-centred manner;

Added25. Underlines that prevention-focused health policies particularly benefit women, reducing long-term healthcare costs and enabling higher labour-market participation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to introduce ambitious targets for the screening of cancer and other relevant diseases, such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease; urges the Member States to recognise and fully exploit the benefits of prophylactic medicinal products, but emphasises that further research into lactose-free prophylactics is required; draws particular attention to the need for early-detection and preventive screening programmes for women with disabilities, with a view to preventing additional health complications;

Added26. Underscores the persistent gender care gap, namely the fact that women disproportionately perform both informal and formal care work, which increases their exposure to a range of health challenges, including mental health challenges; underlines the importance of promoting a fair and equal distribution of caregiving responsibilities; stresses that informal carers should be granted greater support, including financial, mental and peer support, as well as flexible work arrangements and care leave;

Added27. Warns that women’s health medicines are not adequately prioritised in EU efforts to protect against shortages and supply disruptions, despite routine shortages of abortion medicine and contraception, among others, in Member States; calls on the Council to align with Parliament’s proposal to recognise abortifacient and contraceptive medicinal products as medicinal products of common interest in the Critical Medicines Act; calls on the Council to consider these products for inclusion in the next revision of the EU list of critical medicines; calls for the forthcoming Critical Medicines Act to integrate a gender-sensitive approach, ensuring that the identification and prioritisation of critical medicines reflect the specific healthcare needs of women in all their diversity;

Added28. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen measures to protect women and girls from harmful chemical exposure, recognising that women are disproportionately affected due to biological, social and occupational factors; notes that chemicals in everyday products, including cosmetics, menstrual products and household items, can disrupt hormonal systems, increase risks of conditions such as breast cancer and endometriosis and the risks of fertility problems, and can affect foetal development during pregnancy;

AddedMental health

Added29. Urges the Commission to take mental health and its gender-related challenges into account in all relevant healthcare-related measures; stresses that, due to biological and social factors, including the gender pay, pension and care gaps, women are more likely to develop certain mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders, and report higher rates of depression and psychological distress than men; highlights the strong interconnection between physical health conditions and mental health outcomes in women; notes that certain chronic, recurrent or visible health conditions are subject to stigma, and are frequently associated with anxiety, depression and social withdrawal;

Added30. Stresses the need for integrated care approaches that address both physical symptoms and mental well-being, and the need to integrate mental healthcare into the diagnosis and treatment of gender-specific conditions, including into maternal and post-partum health; stresses the need for research on the mental health outcomes of different parental leave models; calls for proportionate, evidence-based action to be taken at EU level to complement national strategies, including by ensuring access to appropriate psychological, psychiatric and nutritional care, as well as increasing access to mental health services for girls and young women; calls on the Commission to take the gender dimension into account in the implementation of the initiatives outlined in its communication of 7 June 2023 on a comprehensive approach to mental health;

Added31. Highlights the need to address the gendered social and commercial pressures that negatively affect girls’ and women’s body image and health; expresses concern about the growing influence of social media on perceptions of women’s health; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote prevention strategies, including awareness-raising campaigns, including in schools, aimed at preventing eating disorders and fostering a healthy body image, self-esteem and informed health choices;

AddedDigital health, medical devices, data and artificial intelligence

Added32. Highlights that medical devices play an increasingly central role in disease management and monitoring; underlines that insufficient consideration of physiological differences between sexes in the design, testing and validation of medical devices, including those used in sport, may result in differences in performance, accuracy and user experience; highlights that the development of medical devices in sport continues to be based on male anthropometric and biomechanical parameters, thereby undermining the efficacy and safety of such devices for women;

Added33. Calls for the systematic integration of sex- and gender-based analysis in the testing, authorisation, and monitoring of digital healthcare technologies, including AI-based diagnostic tools and machine learning systems, through the use of sex-disaggregated data and the meaningful involvement of women throughout the process; stresses that digital healthcare technologies must be developed and implemented in a manner that reflects gender-specific health needs, so as to prevent the replication or reinforcement of existing sex and gender biases;

AddedGlobal health

Added34. Recognises the EU’s commitment to advancing gender equality globally, including through the EU’s Global Health Strategy; deplores the fact that the Union prevention, preparedness and response plan for health crises fails to adequately address the gendered aspects of preparedness and response; calls on the Commission and the Member States to integrate a sex- and gender-responsive and intersectional approach into all policies related to public health and to crisis preparedness and response;

Added35. Calls for the Commission and the Member States to prioritise access to gender-responsive and inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services as an essential component of women’s health under the EU Global Health Strategy; stresses that improving WASH in healthcare facilities is key to reducing preventable maternal and neonatal mortality and to ensuring safe childbirth and menstrual hygiene management;

Gender-specific conditions

Change 7

Removed11. Strongly welcomes the ‘My Voice, My Choice’ European Citizens’ Initiative; reiterates its call on the Commission to make full use of its competence in health policy to provide support to Member States in guaranteeing universal access to SRHR and to enshrine SRHR and the right to safe and legal abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;

Added36. Expresses concern that, despite cardiovascular disease and heart diseases being the leading causes of death among women, women are twice as likely to be misdiagnosed, in part due to the fact that women’s symptoms present differently to men’s; stresses that gender-specific biological, social and psychosocial risk factors play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease and heart disease in women; emphasises that late diagnosis delays access to timely and appropriate care, further increasing the risk of cardiovascular complications; underlines that women living with diabetes and other metabolic diseases are, on average, diagnosed up to 4.5 years later than men, and face an approximately 30 % higher risk of cardiovascular mortality; supports a strong EU framework for combating major diseases, including cardiovascular conditions, ensuring equal access for women to preventative care, early diagnosis, treatment and survivorship support;

Removed12. Reiterates its call on the Commission to set up a voluntary, solidarity-based, opt-in EU financial mechanism that would enable Member States to provide abortion care to people who cannot access it in their home country, without interfering with national laws and regulations; calls, furthermore, on the Commission to bring forward a proposal to this effect;

Added37. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment, made in its December 2025 communication on the Safe Hearts Plan, to invest in research to advance the understanding of sex- and/or gender-specific mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases; calls for the Safe Hearts Plan to integrate a holistic gender-sensitive approach to cardiovascular care, including with regard to screening, prevention campaigns, data collection, diagnostic criteria and clinical guidelines in order to improve early detection, ensure equitable care and reduce avoidable mortality among women; calls on the Commission and the Member States to engage in campaigns to raise awareness, dispel the misconception that cardiovascular disease primarily affects men, and promote preventative measures;

Removed13. Deplores the fact that since the inception of the EU’s Community Research and Development Information Service almost 40 years ago, only 10 of the 145 983 EU-funded projects have focused specifically on endometriosis16;

Added38. Highlights the fact that cancer is the second-greatest cause of death in the EU, affecting more men than women, on average; notes that some cancers present differently in men than in women, and some cancers are specific to, or more prevalent in, certain sexes; expresses concern that, on average, cancer in women is diagnosed 2.5 years later than it is in men; underlines that more research is required into the impact of sex/gender factors on the occurrence of cancer, how it manifests and how it responds to existing treatments;

Removed14. Regrets the fact that, despite a prevalence of adverse menopause symptoms among women, the menopause is still not routinely integrated into primary healthcare and remains shrouded in social stigma;

Added39. Highlights that lesbian women are statistically less likely to access routine screening, often due to misconceptions or previous negative experiences with healthcare providers; underlines the need for tailored information to tackle misconceptions and ensure that lesbian women, transgender and gender-diverse people receive appropriate screening and preventive care, and, in the case of transgender people, gender-sensitive treatment; stresses that access to healthcare, including preventive care, should be based on health needs; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is implemented through a strong gender lens; welcomes the Commission’s intention to issue guidance to financial undertakings on offering cancer patients fair access to financial services, but stresses the need for an EU-wide right to be forgotten for patients who have recovered from cancer, to prevent further discrimination in access to financial services, such as insurance and loans;

Removed15. Urges the Commission to use the forthcoming gender equality strategy for 2026-2030 to propose concrete measures that prioritise investment in gender-specific conditions; stresses that investment in gender-specific conditions should be reflective of their severity and prevalence;

Added40. Highlights the fact that many cancer cases are preventable through behavioural and environmental changes, as well as early intervention measures to detect and prevent pre-cancerous changes; stresses that investing in preventive measures should be a priority for the EU; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strive towards ambitious targets of equal access to high-quality, publicly funded screening programmes for cancer across all EU countries, regardless of place of residence or socio-economic status; stresses the importance of comprehensive and gender-sensitive screening and/or vaccination programmes for breast cancer, cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, skin cancer and lung cancer, which remain among the most common and preventable cancers in Europe, and for hepatitis B; calls for measures to target misinformation about the side effects of vaccines; encourages further investment in innovative diagnostic tools such as biomarker testing, and calls on the Commission to remove barriers to allow for the widespread use of these tools where appropriate, and to ensure equitable access to such tools;

Added41. Stresses that SRHR are fundamental human rights, which constitute a core component of women’s health and public health policy, and that ensuring universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare is a necessity for gender equality; stresses that concrete measures on SRHR are necessary for progress towards achieving the vision outlined in the Commission’s 2025 Roadmap for Women’s Rights, and for alignment with international human rights and the public health standards issued by the WHO and UNESCO; calls on the Commission to take action to advance the full spectrum of SRHR through all relevant EU policy areas and funding instruments, including the proposed European Competitiveness Fund;

Added42. Welcomes the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030, put forward by the Commission, and its commitment to supporting Member States’ healthcare actions regarding SRHR by mapping practices and international frameworks, by developing an EU framework and methodology for systematic data collection to improve the evidence base for SRHR, and by enhancing access to contraception; highlights the upcoming launch, in 2026, of the Sexual and Reproductive Health in Emergencies and Life in Dignity (SHIELD) initiative, which will aim to improve access to SRHR for victims of gender-based violence; calls on the Commission to include further policy and funding commitments, and data collection requirements, in the SHIELD initiative in order to support the Member States in advancing and safeguarding SRHR; is deeply concerned that women and girls with disabilities are far too often denied access to SRHR and stresses the need to safeguard physical integrity, freedom of choice and self-determination, with regard to the sexual and reproductive lives of persons with disabilities;

Added43. Stresses the need to improve the availability of, and access to, abortion throughout the EU; strongly supports the European Citizens’ Initiative entitled ‘My Voice, My Choice’, which aimed to set up a voluntary, solidarity-based, opt-in EU financial mechanism to ensure safe and accessible abortion in Europe; reiterates its call on the Commission to make full use of its competence in health policy to provide support to the Member States in guaranteeing universal access to SRHR, and to enshrine SRHR and the right to safe, legal and accessible abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;

Added44. Welcomes the positive response from the Commission to the ‘My Voice My Choice’ European Citizens’ Initiative in its February 2026 communication, acknowledging that unsafe abortion is a matter of public health, and enabling Member States, via appropriate funding within the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) programme, to provide safe and legal abortion services, including by supporting travel and accommodation costs, to people who cannot access such services in their home country and, in general, for the most vulnerable persons, without interfering with national laws and regulations; recognises that this decision was aimed at reducing healthcare disparities and ensure that people in vulnerable positions have access to essential healthcare services; urgently calls on the Member States to use the ESF+ for this purpose; calls on the Commission to ensure that the use of funds for equal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare is properly assessed in the programming and mid-term review of ESF+ operational programmes;

Added45. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address the specific healthcare needs of LGBTIQ+ people, including by ensuring access to preventive care, treatment, and trans-specific healthcare, and to remove any coercive and unnecessary medical requirements, such as sterilisation, which hinder access to legal recognition and reproductive services, in line with the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights; recognises the commitment from the Commission, in its LGBTIQ+ equality strategy 2026-2030, to facilitate exchanges of best practices between the Member States in this respect; encourages support for community-based healthcare initiatives and EU-funded research under EU4Health and the Horizon programme to ensure inclusive, equitable and safe healthcare for all LGBTIQ+ individuals; condemns conversion practices, such as practices aimed at changing, repressing or suppressing a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, as violations of fundamental rights, and urges the Commission to tackle them through concrete actions; notes the Commission’s response to the European Citizens’ Initiative entitled ‘Ban on conversion practices in the European Union’, and urges the Commission to adopt a recommendation, without further delay, calling on the Member States to ban conversion practices;

Added46. Stresses the role of education, healthcare services and public institutions in preventing gender-based violence and promoting consent, bodily integrity, privacy, and personal autonomy and respect, and reducing gender inequalities; stresses that comprehensive, age-appropriate, science-based sexuality education, in line with UNESCO standards, is essential for promoting consent and SRHR, preventing gender-based violence, countering disinformation and stigma surrounding women’s health, and empowering individuals to make informed, autonomous choices; calls on the Commission to issue clear guidelines to the Member States on the provision of comprehensive age-appropriate sexuality and relationship education, in line with international standards;

Added47. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, safe and varied contraceptive methods; recognises that the contraceptive burden is – physically, financially and mentally – carried disproportionately by women; regrets the fact that, despite the unmet need for contraception globally, the EU has not funded the development of novel contraceptives since 2021; calls for increased investment in innovative research and development of globally applicable contraceptive technologies, including male contraceptives, with the aim of achieving greater gender equality and shared responsibility in family planning; stresses that women’s self-determination in choosing contraception must be fully respected, including their right to receive complete and comprehensible information on the benefits and potential risks and side effects of different contraceptive methods, enabling informed consent; encourages the Member States to effectively curb epidemics of STIs, by integrating HIV and STI prevention, testing and care into broader gender-sensitive healthcare strategies, as well as by removing barriers to testing and improving data collection on STIs;

Added48. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure access for all to affordable, high-quality, toxin-free and environmentally sustainable – particularly reusable – menstrual products; encourages the Member States to use taxation as a tool to make menstrual products more available and affordable for everyone, and to combat menstrual poverty by providing free or affordable access to menstrual products, information and adequate sanitary facilities, particularly in public places such as educational institutions, workplaces, public buildings and reception centres or shelters; stresses that inadequate education about menstruation can lead to unsafe menstrual care and, in turn, serious illness, further highlighting the need for funded public awareness campaigns on menstrual health to address stigma and confront stereotypes linked to menstrual health, alongside increased research into menstrual health conditions; stresses that continence care is a significant, yet often overlooked, aspect of public health, which disproportionately affects women; calls on the Commission and the Member States to launch public awareness campaigns to destigmatise continence health and to ensure that symptoms are not dismissed by patients or providers, and that patients are aware of treatments to cure incontinence, as well as treatments that can manage or improve it;

Added49. Urges the Member States to ensure that pregnant women have access to high-quality maternity healthcare services, regardless of where they live; calls for the development of common EU standards in maternal healthcare, and for strengthened cooperation and exchange of best practice among healthcare professionals in this field, with the objective of improving quality and ensuring that preventable maternal mortality is eliminated; highlights the need for EU-level initiatives specifically addressing postpartum depression and maternal mental health and well-being;

Added50. Recognises that fertility is a critical aspect of health and emphasises the need to proactively address the multifaceted factors of, and challenges related to, fertility; calls on the Member States to ensure high-quality, timely and equitable access to fertility and miscarriage-related healthcare, including infertility diagnosis and treatment, regardless of a woman’s economic situation or marital status, including for women with disabilities; stresses the need for evidence-based, reliable, public information on fertility that promotes a rights-based approach and supports reproductive autonomy; urges the Commission to provide support to the Member States through guidance, data collection and the exchange of best practice; stresses the importance of integrated mental health support and counselling to address the emotional and psychological impact of infertility and miscarriage;

Added51. Regrets the fact that, despite the prevalence of adverse, and serious, menopause and perimenopause symptoms among women, menopause is still not routinely integrated into primary healthcare, occupational health policies and workplace health strategies throughout all the Member States; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that menopause is recognised as a significant public health issue and fully integrated into routine primary healthcare services, with a view to supporting women’s long-term health and continued participation in the labour market; recalls that studies have shown that there is an estimated loss of EUR 9 billion to companies in Germany alone every year due to lack of treatment and support for women experiencing menopause symptoms; calls on the Member States to ensure timely access to menopause care, including through specialised services and clear clinical guidelines which give due consideration to hormonal life stages such as menstruation, pregnancy and menopause; recognises that the majority of available treatments are hormonal and, therefore, not suitable for all patients; highlights the need for the development of non-hormonal treatments alongside more effective and widely available hormonal treatments; notes that hormonal transitions can influence the onset, severity and management of other chronic conditions that disproportionately affect women, compared to men; highlights the fact that the majority of existing medical research focuses on the years of fertility, overlooking puberty, perimenopause and menopause, and that a more inclusive and representative approach to clinical trials is necessary;

Added52. Regrets that menopause remains shrouded in social stigma, and draws attention to the general lack of awareness of the symptoms of perimenopause; underlines the importance of training healthcare professionals on menopause management to provide consistent, evidence-based, and patient-centred support to women throughout the menopausal transition, as well as the need to empower women to recognise symptoms earlier and to seek appropriate care; calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop EU-level guidelines on menopause and perimenopause care and awareness;

Added53. Deplores the fact that since the inception of the EU’s Community Research and Development Information Service almost 40 years ago, only 10 of the 145 983 EU-funded projects have focused specifically on endometriosis; underlines that women’s sexual and reproductive health can be adversely affected by untreated or late-diagnosed health conditions; stresses that timely access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment is essential to protect fertility, sexual health and overall well-being and to reduce avoidable long-term consequences; calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise endometriosis as a chronic condition and to promote its earlier diagnosis through improved training of primary healthcare professionals, clearer referral pathways and increased awareness among healthcare providers, and calls on the Commission to develop an EU-wide action plan on endometriosis;

Added54. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to integrate a gender perspective into diabetes research, diagnosis, treatment and management, as diabetes can affect men and women differently and therefore requires a gender-sensitive approach; calls for EU support for gender-responsive technologies and mental health integration to ensure personalised care and outcomes for women living with diabetes;

Added55. Highlights the fact that chronic inflammatory skin diseases, including atopic eczema, present differently by gender and at different stages in life, and disproportionately affect women; recognises that these conditions entail severe and persistent symptoms, such as pain and an unbearable itch, which significantly impair an individual’s quality of life, sleep and mental health; notes that hormonal changes make women more vulnerable to atopic dermatitis flares, especially during the premenstrual period and pregnancy, as well as to psoriasis during puberty and menopause; emphasises the need for training for healthcare professionals on such skin diseases, including on how symptoms and treatment needs may change across hormonal life stages; underscores that indoor tanning is a likely factor in the steeper rise in melanoma rates among younger women compared with men; urges the Commission to introduce measures to restrict and reduce indoor tanning consistently across the EU in order to stop the melanoma epidemic; stresses the need to strengthen consumer protection by regulating misleading or harmful beauty marketing practices and ensuring clear health warnings about risks to skin health linked to artificial UV exposure and certain cosmetic procedures;

Added56. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address the gender-specific challenges of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in women; stresses the need for increased EU research and innovation to better understand why women are disproportionately affected, experience more pain and respond differently to treatments; encourages the Member States to develop and adopt multidisciplinary care models, with progress indicators, tailored to the needs of women with musculoskeletal disorders, to ensure they have equal access to advanced medical and surgical treatments for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases;

Added57. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen gender-responsive policies in care for older persons, recognising that women represent the majority of older Europeans; calls for solutions that support accessible, affordable, high-quality and long-term care services that respect the dignity, autonomy and health of older women; encourages the sharing of best practices on gender-responsive treatment for older women, including preventive measures such as adequate nutrition and exercise, timely diagnosis and care for illnesses, and tailored approaches for women living in institutional settings and those with memory-disabling diseases who may struggle to express their needs, preferences and symptoms; stresses that there is a higher prevalence of memory-disabling diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, among women than men, primarily due to women’s longer average lifespans, but it is also evident among women and men of the same age;

Added58. Welcomes the publication of the Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030 and the commitments therein to addressing the inequalities in women’s healthcare and advancing SRHR; calls for the Commission to complement the Gender Equality Strategy in its forthcoming policy and budgetary measures by prioritising and incentivising dedicated and targeted investment in women’s health; stresses that investment in gender-specific conditions should reflect their severity and prevalence, while continuing to support research into rare diseases; points out that upcoming strategies must incorporate an integrated approach to care and the goal of improving physical and mental health;

Funding

Change 8

Changed16.59. Recognises that research and innovation are driven by a balance of incentives and obligations and that EU funding can play a significant role in encouraging greater investment in research into gender-specific issues and addressing the inequalities in access to treatment;treatment across the EU, including prevention, early diagnosis and long-term management of chronic conditions affecting women throughout their lives; stresses that there is little incentive for the private sector to invest in preventive carecare, and that thisit should therefore be a priority of the Commission and the Member States;States to invest in specific preventive care for women, focusing on conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, STIs and cancer;

Change 9

Changed17.60. Strongly supports gender mainstreaming across all relevantEU policies and the EU budget;budget, including the systematic consideration of the health needs of women across all stages of their lives; calls for the Commission to launchlaunch, without delay, dedicated and targeted funding calls for research and EU-related actions on gender-specific conditions and projectsprojects, seekingin order to close the gap in sex-specificsex- and gender-specific health data; recommends the establishment of an expert group on research and innovation in women’s health to guide the development and collaborative implementation of the women’s health research plan; stresses that such funding should prioritise public research and support access to healthcare systems for everyone, taking into account social and regional inequalities;

Change 10

Changed18.61. ConsidersStresses that closing gender health gaps is first and foremost a matter of fundamental rights; considers, however, the improvement of gender equality overall, but notably in the area of health researchresearch, to be a competitive opportunity for the EU;EU and a driver of productivity and long-term fiscal sustainability; highlights that the World Economic Forum estimates that closing investment gaps in women’s healthcare could boost the global economy by USD 1 trillion annually by 2040; points out that the gap in sex-specific health data constitutes a scarcity in the underlying basic science on gender-specific conditions, which constrains private-sector actors willing to invest in applied and development research; stresses that dedicating EU funding to addressing gender inequalities in health,health through the current and future Horizon Europe programmes, the European Competitiveness Fund and the current and future EU4Health programmes, coupled with measures to close the data gaps, could incentivise investment and boost innovation in the EU;