Why consumer involvement matters in women's health translation
Women's health conditions like endometriosis, PCOS, fertility challenges, and menopause are shaped by lived experience that does not always show up in clinical endpoints.
Recruitment, retention, and real-world adoption depend on trust — built upstream, not bolted on after technical decisions are made.
Consumer insight improves study design, product-market fit, and the quality of evidence that regulators and investors evaluate.
How community shapes the platform
Four areas where lived experience drives decisions and design.
Priority setting
Consumer perspectives inform unmet needs
Consumer perspectives inform which unmet needs the platform addresses and how projects are selected
Study design input
Lived experience shapes evidence
Lived experience advisory on endpoints, burden of participation, recruitment messaging, and patient-reported outcomes
Governance participation
Community representatives in governance
Consumer representatives on selection panels and advisory structures, with defined roles and terms
Access and adoption
Real-world perspectives on innovation
Real-world perspectives on how innovations reach patients: implementation burden, health literacy, cultural safety, and affordability
Who we want to hear from
- People with lived experience of women's health conditions who want to contribute to how innovations are developed and evaluated
- Consumer health advocates and patient organisations
- Community organisations working in women's health, maternal health, reproductive rights, or health equity
- Clinicians and researchers who centre consumer perspectives in their work
Consumer voice in governance
The platform's Advisory Board includes a dedicated Consumer Representative role — currently held by Stephanie Allen — to ensure lived experience informs governance decisions, not just consultation processes. Consumer representatives participate with defined roles, terms, and decision rights alongside clinical, industry, and investor advisors.
This is structural, not ceremonial. Consumer input shapes which ventures are selected, how evidence plans account for patient burden, and how adoption assumptions are tested before capital is deployed.
What consumer involvement looks like in practice
Consumer advisors are not asked for general feedback. They contribute to specific decisions: whether a trial design accounts for participant burden, whether recruitment messaging reflects how patients actually talk about their condition, whether a diagnostic pathway is realistic in the health systems where patients are actually treated.
This means consumer advisors need to be appropriately supported — with context on the science, the commercial constraints, and the regulatory landscape — so their input is informed and actionable, not tokenistic.
Register as a community advisor
If you have lived experience or work in consumer advocacy and want to help shape how this platform operates, we want to hear from you. Register your interest and select 'Consumer / community advisor' as your role.