Women’s History Month: Advances in women’s health, from ancient medicine to modern trials

The AHS Index is a new way to look at data that illuminates a snapshot of our world today. Its goal is to bring inequities into focus and encourage solutions that advance health for all.

Number of recipes for medical remedies in 'The Diseases and Cures of Women,' written by Egyptian physician Metrodora, who invented the speculum and performed surgeries between 200 and 400 AD: 137

Estimated number of patients treated by Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first indigenous woman to earn a medical degree in 1889, who was inspired to go into medicine to help heal members of her Omaha Nation: 1,240

Number of years Jessie Sleet Scales spent applying for nursing jobs, before she was finally hired to become America's first Black public health nurse: 5

Number of "sons" adopted by Dr. Margaret "Mom" Chung, the first known Chinese-American woman to become a physician, who supported WWII soldiers by sending them letters and Christmas gifts and connecting them to each other: ~ 1500

Percent by which infant mortality decreased at a clinic founded by pioneering women's rights activist Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, who pushed the mostly white women's movement toward a broader understanding of women's health justice: 50%

Number of patents developed by Gertrude Elion, who won a Nobel Prize in 1988 for changing the way drugs were developed by creating a rational approach: 45

Number of women included in the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials starting in 1990, led by Dr. Bernadine Healey who was the first female director of the National Institutes of Health: 150,000