Jill Biden talks women's health issues in the Bull City

Uh we'll put a lot of this information in my

next speech because I'm listening as we're gathering stuff

So thank you Governor Cooper for your introduction and for

all that you are doing for North Carolina

And I also want to thank Mayor Williams and and

mayor pro pro TEM uh Melton for welcoming me

And so good afternoon everybody

So in the early 19 seventies researchers in the United

States studied estrogen's effect in preventing heart attacks

You see it was observed that women who had gone

through menopause therefore who had lower levels of estrogen were

more likely to have heart attacks

So a study was conducted asking whether estrogen prevents heart

attacks

8341 people were selected for that study all of them

men

So this is just how things were done before

And while we've made progress since that study over the

last 40 years so they wanted me to make sure

that we made that you know that I said that

we've made progress uh due to the work by some

of you women's health research is overlooked and underfunded

And medical studies have often left out women and too

many of our medications our treatments and our medical school

textbooks are based on men

So in November Joe and I launched the first ever

White House initiative on women's health research with a clear

goal to fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds

research on women's health

Because if you ask any woman in America about her

health care she probably has a story to tell you

all know her

She's the woman who gets debilitating migraines but doesn't know

why and can't find treatment options that work for her

She's the woman going through menopause who has more questions

than answers because more research is needed for solutions

She's the woman whose heart attack is rec isn't recognized

because her symptoms aren't like they don't look like a

man's and heart disease is the leading cause of death

among women

But I don't have to tell you that you you

already know all that

So many of us and so many of the women

in our lives suffer from health conditions for which we

simply don't have the answers or the solutions

So think about it even if you have the best

doctors or the best insurance when it comes to Alzheimer's

I BS or terrible my uh myopia symptoms is that

enough No

Right

No we simply don't know about how to prevent detect

and treat the conditions that only affect women affect women

more than men or different affect women differently than men

So President Biden is the first president to make women's

health research a top White house priority

resources into understanding the science behind the conditions that so

many of us experience

Just a few weeks ago Arpa H the new agency

that president Biden created to pursue breakthroughs in health research

launched its first ever sprint for women's health putting $100

million in women's health research and development this year

And during Joe's State of the Union address he called

on Congress to invest 12 billion into women's health research

And just two days ago he signed the most comprehensive

executive order ever to expand and improve research on women's

health and announced 200 million in new NIH funding for

this work

Joe is unlocking incredible resources for researchers entrepreneurs and life

science companies to pioneer the next generation of great discoveries

this time in women's health

And that's why I'm here today at the research triangle

drawing on the might of your world-class universities and led

by visionary state academic and business leaders

You know you have created one of the most powerful

research development ecosystems from agricultural technology to the life sciences

You've proven there's nothing beyond your capacity when your universities

your entrepreneurs investors companies and state and city leaders come

together to drive innovation as the research triangle continues to

grow I encourage you to harness that same spirit of

discovery and ambition and take on the next great health

care challenge of our time finding innovative solutions in women's

health

It's the right thing to do and it could be

the next big thing for your bottom line

But don't just take it from me in 2021 the

women's health market was estimated to be worth like nine

was 9 billion

But the Boston consulting group estimates that in just eight

years that number is going to grow to 29 billion

Amazon's Chief Technology Officer I was just up in Virginia

and at Amazon actually recently announced his top four predictions

for 2024 and he predicted that Femtech finally takes off

women's healthcare reaches an inflection point as Femtech investment surges

and mc mckinsey and company estimates that investments addressing the

women's health gap could boost the global economy by one

trillion annually

By the year 2040 women's health is having a big

moment

And with President Biden's investments in women's health research I

know the research triangle can lead the way not only

will your universities businesses and community benefit from it but

so will millions of women across North Carolina and the

United States This is only the beginning together we can

write a new future for health care a future where

women leave doctors offices with more answers than questions where

no women has or girl has to hear that

Oh it's all in your head or it's just stress

where women aren't just an afterthought in a world designed

for men

But the first thought in a world designed for everyone

we are building a world where women don't just survive

they lead long healthy and happy lives

Today

Today is just the beginning

Thank you

pretty much

That's right

Yeah

Ok

Yeah