By Kathleen Berger, Executive Producer for Science and Technology

The new Women’s Health Engineering course at the McKelvey School of Engineering is an eye-opening experience for some Washington University in St. Louis students.

“All of the different things that can go wrong in pregnancy,” said Natalia Alonzo, first-year PhD student in biomedical engineering. “The fact that maternal mortality is increasing, especially in the U.S., I just think this is such a shocking fact that people are not quite thinking about or not realizing. How incredible that is, especially in this country where we are supposed to have the resources and the technology.”

The spring of 2024 class was comprised of only about 15% men.

“I know all the men in the class and all of us have enjoyed it,” said Joseph Levin, biomedical engineering student. “The appeal for me is that it’s a very understudied topic. There’s a lot of funding available and there’s a lot of research to be done.”

“Anything to do with women’s health has been underfunded and understudied, compared with conditions in men’s health,” said Michelle Oyen, PhD, associate professor in biomedical engineering and director for the Center of Women’s Health Engineering. “And that just comes from the history of how research didn’t used to be done as much by women, and women tend to be more interested in problems in women’s health.”

Lately, there is growing research and technology in this area of engineering, giving rise to the ‘FemTech Revolution.’

“FemTech is the generic name that’s been given for a lot of startup companies in the space of women’s health,” said Oyen. “We are focused on engineering, so we’re focused on engineering tools and techniques.”

To meet the need for research and education for this rapidly expanding field covering half of the world’s population, Washington University in St. Louis launched the Center for Women’s Health Engineering in 2022. Women’s health covers decades of a woman’s life, from puberty through post-menopause, including myriad clinical issues, such as pregnancy and preterm birth, pelvic floor disorders, endometriosis and various cancers of the reproductive system.

According to the center’s webpage, “The mission of the Center for Women’s Health Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is to unite investigators from the McKelvey School of Engineering and the School of Medicine to collaborate in research, education and training at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels. The center will also support technology transfer, entrepreneurship and outreach both within and outside of the university community.”

“This class that we started this year is part of that (mission), so there’s a new course on women’s health and engineering,” said Oyen. “The Great thing that’s happening right now is that there is an injection of financing into research, there’s a big women’s health initiative that’s being led by the White House right now, there’s a lot of development work.”

“Solutions that will have true positive impact on the world,” said Natalia Alonzo.

“Prior to this, I was interested in only orthopedic surgery,” said Joseph Levin. “And now I am starting to get a little more interested in obstetrician-gynecology, and also oncology because we talk a lot about cancer.”