Calling all women: The IWK Foundation wants to hear your health stories

Aly Thomson · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 03, 2025 12:53 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

The IWK Foundation has launched a survey successful the hopes of amended knowing women's wellness experiences successful the Maritime provinces and to code the disparity successful wellness outcomes betwixt men and women.

The foundation is a not-for-profit enactment that raises funds to enactment IWK Health, a large infirmary successful Halifax that provides attraction to women, younker and children from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Jennifer Gillivan, president and CEO of the foundation, said the online survey invites women ages 18 and up to stock their perspectives astir their wide wellness experiences, challenges and outcomes. It besides asks questions astir their wellness successful antithetic stages of their life.

"Part of our mandate is to educate and advocator for women. And truthful we realized — we request to perceive from women. We request women's voices," said Gillivan successful an interview on Thursday.

"I mean, you spell retired to devour with your girlfriends oregon your household and you commencement talking astir experiences successful health, and they don't halt talking. So we thought this is simply a phenomenal mode to benignant of cod each that information and past recognize wherever the unit points are."

The survey is anonymous. It includes questions like: "What positively oregon negatively impacts your wide carnal wellness the most?" There is besides a afloat leafage dedicated to sharing successful item "the good, atrocious oregon ugly" of one's health-care story.

The results, which volition beryllium reviewed by a squad of researchers, volition assistance pass wherever women request much enactment and wherever determination are gaps successful the system, said Gillivan.

This could see gaps successful acquisition and consciousness or access to tools and information. But astir importantly, it seeks to fundamentally alteration however women's wellness is understood, prioritized and delivered successful a state wherever women walk 25 per cent much clip successful mediocre wellness than men, said Gillivan.

"There needs to beryllium a existent propulsion connected women's research, due to the fact that probe informs care. It changes everything. And we request better training for doctors connected women's health," she said.

Gillivan said women's wellness has been historically under-researched and underfunded, with conscionable 7 per cent of full nationalist probe backing allocated to it, contempt women making up 50 per cent of the population. 

She said the findings of the study volition pass the IWK's ain practices and operations, but volition besides beryllium shared with anyone other who wants it, including governments, health authorities and different non-profits crossed Canada.

It volition besides assistance usher efforts to amended the wider assemblage that women's bodies are fundamentally antithetic than men's, and their wellness attraction needs to beryllium prioritized and researched, she said.

Maggie Archibald is simply a diligent advocator based successful Halifax who has struggled with chronic symptom for 18 years owed to endometriosis that was lone officially diagnosed two years ago.

She said she often felt dismissed by the health-care system.

"You symptoms are often not believed and women often person to combat harder to get help," said Archibald. "I'm really excited to see the results and what comes retired of this and hopefully we tin person immoderate existent change."

The instauration expects to stock the results publically connected Oct. 1.

Click present to take the IWK Foundation's survey.