Women's health Overview

Overview

Women have distinct biological, social and cultural experiences that influence their health across the life course. These experiences, including (but not limited to) menstruation, pregnancy and menopause, greatly influence women’s health outcomes and health care needs. In addition, systemic issues such as unequal expectations around caring and domestic responsibilities, socioeconomic inequalities and disproportionate experiences of sexual and family violence can have substantial health impacts.

The AIHW produces data disaggregated by sex and or gender throughout its reports, where possible. This topic page focuses on data and reporting related to five key priority areas outlined in the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030. Expand the below sections to explore AIHW data and reports related to these priority areas.

How does AIHW reporting define women?

The use of the word ‘women’ in AIHW reporting may refer to either sex or gender, depending on the nature of the data sources used. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. See AIHW data by sex and gender for definitions of sex and gender.

This page uses the term ‘women’ when referring to adult females, in alignment with the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030. Due to different data sources and their collection and reporting methods, the defined age range for women will vary across different reports.

Chronic conditions and preventive health Expand

Chronic conditions

AIHW reporting across chronic conditions, multimorbidity and risk factors includes breakdowns by sex to enable investigation on the impact of chronic diseases among women.

Understanding conditions that disproportionately impact women is essential to improving women's health. AIHW produces reports on these conditions, providing data that can inform health policy and service planning. See:

Endometriosis
Dementia
Chronic musculoskeletal conditions, particularly Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis
Asthma

Preventive health

The National preventive health monitoring dashboard provides information by sex where possible. This enables exploration of how females in Australia are progressing against the targets of the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030.

A key part of preventive health in women is undertaking regular cancer screening, particularly for cervical and breast cancer which affect mainly women, but also for bowel and lung cancer. AIHW provides regular monitoring for the national cancer screening programs in Australia. These monitoring reports, in particular the cervical screening report help to show how Australian women are progressing against the targets outlined in the National Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer in Australia. For more information see Cancer screening.

Maternal and perinatal health Expand

The AIHW has an extensive program of work relating to maternal and perinatal health. This includes the management and collation of nationally consistent and comprehensive maternal and perinatal collections to enable monitoring of maternity outcomes and care in Australia. The AIHW reports across many important areas of maternal and perinatal health including on antenatal, labour and birth outcomes, maternity models of care, maternal and perinatal deaths, and perinatal mental health.

Information on data sources and reports in maternal and perinatal health can be found at Mothers & babies. In addition to the information on gestational diabetes in Australia's mothers and babies, information on gestational diabetes can be found in Diabetes: Australian facts, Gestational diabetes.

Sexual and reproductive health Expand

The AIHW is undertaking work to develop a national sexual and reproductive health monitoring framework, data strategy and regular reporting. This will help to address gaps in national data, statistics and monitoring, particularly in relation to the key priority events of a woman’s lifecycle including menstrual conditions (including symptoms and conditions, such as endometriosis), miscarriage, contraception, termination of pregnancy and perimenopause and menopause. For more information see Sexual & reproductive health.

Other data and information available within AIHW reporting relating to sexual and reproductive health:

Information on endometriosis can be found in Endometriosis.
Information on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among girls can be found in the adolescent immunisation coverage section of Immunisation and vaccination.
Information on sexually transmissible infections can be found in Infectious and communicable diseases, however information specifically for females is limited.

Healthy ageing Expand

Healthy ageing relates to maintaining physical, mental, and social wellbeing in older age to continue to live with independence and a high quality of life. Addressing risk factors that impact the quality of life of women as they age and understanding and managing the needs of ageing women are fundamental to promoting healthy ageing.

The Older Australians report provides insights on the health and social wellbeing of people over the age of 65. Differences between women and men is examined where possible.

Dementia is the disease with the biggest impact on older women and reduction of dementia risk is an important part to healthy ageing. See Dementia in Australia, What puts someone at risk of developing dementia? for detailed information and Dementia in Australia, Dementia burden due to risk factors for data on the risk factors that contribute most to the burden of dementia in Australia’s older women.

References to the AIHW data on modifiable risk factors among women that are important contributors to healthy ageing, can be seen below in the preventive health section.

Mental health and suicide Expand

The AIHW’s Mental health online report provides data and analysis across all areas of mental health including prevalence and impact, use of health and social services and safety and quality. Data on females, including prevalence and type of mental health disorders, mental health scores and psychological distress is available in Prevalence and impact of mental illness.

The AIHW’s Suicide & self-harm monitoring site provides data on suicide and self-harm by sex, highlighting important sex differences in these behaviours that are important for understanding and responding to suicide and self-harm in women.

During the perinatal period (pregnancy and the first year of the baby’s life) mental health conditions are common and can have serious effects on the health and wellbeing of women, their babies and families. The AIHW’s Perinatal mental health screening report brings together the latest perinatal mental health screening data from 4 state and territory health authorities.

Health impacts of violence against women and girls Expand

Family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) is a major health, welfare and social issue. It affects people of all ages and from all backgrounds, but mainly women and children. The AIHW’s Family, domestic and sexual violence website provides a comprehensive picture of FDSV in Australia and a summary of changes in key measures over time.

Specifically, see Health outcomes for a summary of the short and long-term, health outcomes among victim-survivors of FDSV, particularly intimate partner violence (IPV).