The Women's Health Portal

We are currently working on building the Women's Health Portal

Do you have input for the work? Get in touch with us! E-mail: kvinnehelse@ous-hf.no

Launch autumn 2026. Read more in the press release from the start-up phase:

Press release

Have you received a diagnosis and are looking for information online? Do you Google to find out how common it is to be absent from work due to menstrual cramps? Or are you looking for the latest news from the research front on women's health? A digital portal communicating research on women's health is now being built.

It is easy to get lost in the jungle of information, advertising and disinformation, online. On the new Women's Health Portal, you will find safe, research-based knowledge about women's health, without advertising.

For several years, key players have called for more attention to women's health and gender differences in health and disease, both in terms of research and information. There has been – and still is – a concern that a lack of knowledge has led to poorer health services for women.

To remedy this, the National Centre for Women's Health Research at Oslo University Hospital and Kilden genderresearch.no in the Research Council of Norway have been tasked with establishing a digital portal for disseminating knowledge about women's health. Now the work of creating the portal is underway.

"This is a very important measure, which is now being implemented. There is little doubt that there is a need for such a knowledge-based dissemination channel. Women's health is a field with large knowledge gaps, and the research that does exist does not reach a wide enough audience," says Siri Vangen, head of the Norwegian Centre for Women's Health Research.

Research dissemination to a broad audience

Interest in women's health in society is growing rapidly, and increasingly new and important knowledge is being produced in the field.

"The aim of the Women's Health Portal is to make research known to both the general public and professionals, and to ensure that the new knowledge is put to use. Because the content is quality assured by researchers and other professionals, users can have full confidence in the information they receive here," says Kristin Engh Førde, director of Kilden genderresearch.no.

The new portal will strive to reach out to everyone who wants to know more about women's health in a life-course perspective and gender differences in health, including men.

"The hope is also that the portal will drive the field of knowledge forward, by putting current issues on the agenda," says Vangen.

The Norwegian Centre for Women's Health Research is affiliated with Oslo University Hospital (OUS) and works to develop and increase knowledge about women's health. Kilden genderresearch.no is a national knowledge centre that communicates and disseminates knowledge about gender perspectives and gender balance in research, and is an indepentent unit within the Research Council of Norway.

"We are very happy to be able to collaborate and benefit from each other's expertise, so that we can get the most out of women's health research to as many people as possible," says Førde.

The goal of the Women's Health Portal is to make research known to both the public and to professionals, and to ensure that the new knowledge is put to use. From left: Siri Vangen (director of the Norwegian Centre for Women's Health Research), Kristin Engh Førde (director of Kilden genderresearch.no) and Elisabeth T. Swärd (special adviser at the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association). Photo: Kilden genderresearch.no..

What do we know about women's health?

The Norwegian Women's Public Health Association (NKS) is also involved in the work on the new portal. In 2018, NKS, Kilden genderresearch.no and the Norwegian Centre for Women's Health Research were behind a survey of research on women's health, which you can read about in the report What do we know about women's health? (Norwegian only).

The report revealed knowledge gaps in research on women's health and provided a basis for asking whether women generally receive poorer health services than men due to a lack of research in the field.

"In order to increase knowledge about women's health and gender differences in health, it is therefore necessary to have an information channel that gathers and makes available both new and existing research in the field," says special adviser Elisabeth T. Swärd of the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association.

"We therefore welcome the work on the portal, and will contribute with input, to ensure that different patient and user groups' needs for information about women-specific diseases and disorders are met," says Swärd.  

Read about the background for the women's health portal here: 

History of the Women's Health Portal (Norwegian only)

Read more about women's health

Allocation of funds for the measure:

In 2023, the Official Norwegian Report (NOU) The Big Difference. About women's health and the importance of gender for health was published. One of the measures in the report was that a digital portal should be established for knowledge about research on women's health. The measure was adopted as part of the Storting's (Parliament) recommendation for the revised national budget for 2024. The measure is also described in the Government's Women's health strategy.

The Ministry of Health and Care Services has given the task of creating the portal to the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority and more specifically the National Centre for Women's Health Research, in collaboration with Kilden genderresearch.no.

Five million NOK have been set aside for the establishment of the portal.

For questions, please contact:

Project manager for the Women's Health Portal, Ann-Kristin Selmer, at the Norwegian Centre for Women's Health Research by phone 920 13 212, or e-mail anselm@ous-hf.no.

Project manager for the Women's Health Portal, Elin Rekdal Müller, by phone 99712129, or e-mail erml@forskningsradet.no.

The National Centre for Women's Health Research

The Norwegian Centre for Women's Health Research is a national research environment that aims to develop and increase knowledge about women's health in a life-course perspective. The centre does this with research, professional development and dissemination. The centre will conduct research on the prevention and treatment of diseases and ailments that primarily affect women, occur more frequently in women, and that affect women differently than men. The centre disseminates new research through the Women's Health Podcast, the Women's Health Blog, news articles, seminars and courses for health professionals.

Kilden genderresearch.no

Kilden is a national knowledge centre for gender perspectives and gender balance in research, and is an academically independent department of the Research Council of Norway. We disseminate new research through news articles, podcasts, seminars and conferences, in addition to producing knowledge overviews and developing digital content either on our own initiative, or on behalf of others.

The Norwegian Women's Public Health Association

The Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association promote women's health and living conditions, contribute to an inclusive upbringing and create safe local communities. The association does this through volunteering, research, political influence and non-profit organizations. The Association is Norway's largest women's organization with 44,000 members divided into 550 local associations.

Read more:

The Government's Women's Health Strategy

NOU 2023 5: The big difference. On women's health and the importance of gender for health (2023) (Norwegian only)

The report What do we know about women's health? Can be downloaded as a PDF (Norwegian only)

Read more on: Women's health, Health and gender, Birth and pregnancy, Motherhood, Gender based violence, Mental health, Men's health 

Publisert 27.02.25