When Mandy Moore first decided to pursue motherhood, she assumed she knew enough about the path ahead—until it took an unexpected detour.
"My journey to motherhood was not linear,” she says. “I went into the whole experience pretty blind; pretty unfamiliar with how my body functions.” After trying for over a year, a fertility doctor informed her that she might have a condition that would prevent pregnancy without surgery. (As luck would have it, she and her husband conceived shortly before going through with the procedure.)
Moore's is a pretty common story. Many of us don't begin to dig deeper into how our own bodies work until we're faced with a health milestone—whether that's pregnancy, a fertility challenge or a debilitating symptom. And that's simply because as a whole, women's bodies have been overlooked in a profound and systemic way: Even today, less than 11% of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding is allocated to women's research.
“This should be a conversation we’re having in our teens and our twenties," says Moore. "I missed out on that whole part of sex ed."
Equitable research is foundational to improving our own body literacy. It's why we pledged $10 million to close the gender research gap, and created our Perelel Universe: a future we're creating now, where research reflects our bodies, and where women can feel seen, heard, and supported through every part of their health journey.
Four years and two healthy pregnancies later, Mandy will soon welcome her third child: a baby girl. And she envisions an entirely different future for her daughter.
“In my Perelel Universe, my hopes and dreams for my daughter span the universe," she says. "But they really center around body literacy, destigmatizing what the world thinks of women’s bodies…gender equity in research, and access to the care and support she needs and deserves,” she says.
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And creating that future will take all of us. “I love being part of a company that engenders this sort of conversation, and making it more the norm," she says."Making women more comfortable to talk about their bodies, to talk about their journeys, and how similar we all are… and yet how different we all are.”
Join us and Mandy Moore as we call on Congress to increase federal funding for women’s health research, close the gender health gap—and create a world with more healthy, supported women.
Ready to sign our petition? Click here to show your support.
