Women's health is Australia's biggest underpriced asset

Australia loves to talk about productivity, sovereign capability, and future-made industries. One of the highest-return investments available is hiding in plain sight: women's health — not as charity, but as economic and industrial strategy. Women are half the population, the majority of healthcare users, and drive most household health decisions. When the burden of chronic conditions goes unaddressed, it shows up as lost workforce participation, lower productivity, and higher downstream healthcare costs.

The numbers make the case concrete. Endometriosis alone carries an estimated economic burden in Australia of $7.4 to $9.7 billion a year — mostly productivity lost to years-long diagnostic delays and fragmented care. Only 3.3% of government research funding in 2023–24 went to women's health, and most of that was narrowly focused. The Commonwealth's $792.9 million budget package spanning contraception, endometriosis care, and menopause support is a start, but a budget package is not an investment strategy.

Globally, venture capital in women's health reached $2.6 billion in 2024. The risk for Australia is importing solutions, paying full freight, and missing the chance to build companies, jobs, trial infrastructure, and exportable expertise. We need a dedicated translation engine that blends public and private capital and is judged on outcomes — clinical trial networks, regulatory fluency, reimbursement strategy, and operators who can build ventures that survive first contact with the market.

This piece was originally published in Capital Brief on 3 February 2026.