May is Women’s Health Month, and National Women’s Health Week most likely coincides on Mother’s Day as a reminder for women to take time and prioritize their health. To raise awareness for this campaign, the Editors at BMC and Springer Open have curated a collection of recent research relating to key topics in women’s health.

For years it was believed heart attacks and cardiovascular disease primarily affected men–it is now known that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the USA and is responsible for one third of deaths among women worldwide. And despite incredible advancements in reducing maternal mortality rates, according to the World Health Organization women are still dying during childbirth at the rate of approximately 800 women a day.

Women’s health is truly a global health issue which directly impacts nearly half the world’s population. Thus, it is critical that researchers continue inform the medical communities, NGOs, and women themselves on how to be healthier and safer in today’s world.

Addiction
The federal plan for health science and technology’s response to the opioid crisis: understanding sex and gender differences as part of the solution is overlooked

Association between cannabis use and methadone maintenance treatment outcomes: an investigation into sex differences

Proneness to high blood lipid-related indices in female smokers

Cancer Risk and Detection
A review of sex-related differences in colorectal cancer incidence, screening uptake, routes to diagnosis, cancer stage and survival in the UK

Body mass index, mammographic density, and breast cancer risk by estrogen receptor subtype

Breast imaging surveillance after curative treatment for primary non-metastasised breast cancer in non-high-risk women: a systematic review

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward cervical cancer prevention among women in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia

Hyperechoic breast images: all that glitters is not gold!

Genetic polymorphisms of estrogen receptor genes are associated with breast cancer susceptibility in Chinese women

Role of MRI in staging and follow-up of endometrial and cervical cancer: pitfalls and mimickers

Melatonin enhances TNF-α-mediated cervical cancer HeLa cells death via suppressing CaMKII/Parkin/mitophagy axis

Landscape of genomic alterations in high-grade serous ovarian cancer from exceptional long- and short-term survivors

Integrative analysis of gene expression and methylation data for breast cancer cell lines

A two-step strategy for identification of plasma protein biomarkers for endometrial and ovarian cancer

Effect of ovarian cancer ascites on SKOV-3 cells proteome: new proteins associated with aggressive phenotype in epithelial ovarian cancer

Cancer Treatment
Mechanisms for estrogen receptor expression in human cancer

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound for ovary assessment in a murine model: preliminary findings on the protective role of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue from chemotherapy-induced ovarian damage

High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy in gynecologic cancer regression: a review of the literature

Overexpression and cytoplasmic localization of caspase-6 is associated with lamin A degradation in set of ovarian cancers

CIB1 depletion with docetaxel or TRAIL enhances triple-negative breast cancer cell death

LincK contributes to breast tumorigenesis by promoting proliferation and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition

A systematic review on the use of the breast lesion excision system in breast disease

SPAG5 upregulation contributes to enhanced c-MYC transcriptional activity via interaction with c-MYC binding protein in triple-negative breast cancer

Autocrine motility factory promotes endometrial cancer progression by targeting GPER-1

Cardiovascular Disease

Strategies and methods to study female-specific cardiovascular health and disease: a guide for clinical scientists

Antidepressant medication during pregnancy and epigenetic changes in umbilical cord blood: a systematic review

Sex-specific influence on cardiac structural remodeling and therapy in cardiovascular disease

Estrogen rescues heart failure through estrogen receptor Beta activation

Estrogen regulation of cardiac cAMP-L-type Ca2+channel pathway modulates sex differences in basal contraction and responses to β2AR-mediated stress in left ventricular apical myocytes

The role of the gut microbiome in sex differences in arterial pressure

Pregnancy/Menstruation/Menopause
Pro-angiogenic therapeutics for preeclampsia

The placenta: phenotypic and epigenetic modifications induced by Assisted Reproductive Technologies throughout pregnancy

Discovery of non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of endometriosis

Chronic low alcohol intake during pregnancy programs sex-specific cardiovascular deficits in rats

DNA methylation profiling of acute chorioamnionitis-associated placentas and fetal membranes: insights into epigenetic variation in spontaneous preterm births

Associations between maternal risk factors of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes and the offspring epigenetic clock of gestational age at birth

Cross-genetic determination of maternal and neonatal immune mediators during pregnancy

Differential effect of surgical manipulation on gene expression in normal breast tissue and breast tumor tissue

Ovarian dysfunction following prenatal exposure to an insecticide, chlordecone, associates with altered epigenetic features

Maternal dietary glycaemic change during gestation influences insulin-related gene methylation in the placental tissue: a genome-wide methylation analysis

Gynecologic and reproductive outcomes in fibrous dysplasia/McCune-Albright syndrome

Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP): a novel predictive indicator for the coronary artery disease in postmenopausal women

Gynecologic assessment of 19 adult females with cartilage-hair hypoplasia – high rate of HPV positivity

Comparison of lipid profiles and inflammation in pre- and post-menopausal women with cerebral infarction and the role of atorvastatin in such populations

Analysis of menstrual effluent: diagnostic potential for endometriosis

Articles from the following journals have been included in this collection: Applied Cancer Research, Biology of Sex Differences, BioData Mining, Biomarker Research, Cancer Cell International, Clinical Epigenetics, Clinical Proteomics, Epigenetics & Chromatin, European Radiology Experimental, Genes & Nutrition, Genome Medicine, Insights into Imaging, Journal of Hematology & Oncology, Lipids in Health and Disease, Molecular Medicine, Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, and Proteome Science.