Women's Health Research

Three new research centers formed by the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health to better understand the health issues affecting women today.

Women's Health Clinical Research Center

The UCSF Women's Health Clinical Research Center was designed to address the critical need to promote and conduct adequate research on women. Failure to include women in research studies has led to inadequate attention to sex and gender differences in health and disease. Until the past decade, nearly all biomedical research, except that pertaining directly to the reproductive system, was conducted in men. Increasing evidence has indicated that research performed on men is often not applicable to women. For many illnesses, appropriate screening, prevention, and treatment differ by gender. Further, as researchers have begun to study women, it has become clear that, for many illnesses, ethnic and cultural differences also play a role.

Lesbian Health & Research Center

This national research center is specifically and uniquely concerned with health and wellness issues about lesbians, bisexual women, transgendered individuals, their families, and health care providers. To achieve this goal, we create comprehensive programs of research, education and trainings, public events and community collaborations.

Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment

UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) is pioneering a new, transdisciplinary model in environmental reproductive health care, research, training, and policy. PRHE integrates basic and epidemiological research; translation into clinical care and policy analysis and solutions; and health professional and public education.

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Additional UCSF Research Centers Focused on Women's Health

Breast Cancer

Bay Area Breast Cancer Translation Research Program
The Bay Area Breast Cancer Translation Research Program focuses on the development of new therapeutic approaches to breast cancer treatment. This site offers an overview of all current projects as well as links to other research.

Health Policy

Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
The Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies conducts and applies policy-oriented research on a wide range of health issues at the national, state and local level. This site provides information on IHPS faculty, publications, fellowship programs, Health Policy Seminar Series, news and links to other organizations.

Reproductive Health

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
The Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health addresses the health, social, and economic consequences of sexual activity by integrating efforts in contraception and family planning with work in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. Projects and research range from primary prevention to treatment interventions and include epidemiologic and behavioral approaches, clinical and biomedical research, and public health and policy development.

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health—ANSIRH
ANSIRH works to ensure that reproductive health care and policy are grounded in evidence. ANSIRH’s multi-disciplinary team includes clinicians, researchers and scholars in the fields of sociology, demography, anthropology, medicine, nursing, public health, and law. ANSIRH is a program of the Bixby Center for Reproductive Health.

Center for Reproductive Sciences
The Center for Reproductive Sciences (CRS) is an Organized Research Unit of the University of California at San Francisco, founded in 1977. The CRS brings together a multidisciplinary group of basic researchers and physician scientists who have joined forces to coordinate basic and translational research in reproductive physiology and pathophysiology. Currently, 19 basic researchers and 6 physician scientists are affiliated with the CRS. The faculty utilizes state of the art techniques to promote our knowledge of reproductive processes and to improve our understanding and, ultimately, the treatment of reproductive disorders.

Specialty Areas

Women's Continence Center (SCOR)
UCSF Specialized Center of Research (SCOR), under the direction of Dr. Jeanette Brown, is one of only 10 funded centers in the U.S. supported by the National Institutes of Health and Office of Research on Women's Health. The focus of the UCSF SCOR is on urinary incontinence and lower urinary tract function in women.