Women's Health

Women should receive culturally informed and inclusive care from pharmacists who understand their individual needs and actively build trusted patient partnerships that lead to improved health outcomes.

Establishing and building strong relationships with patients creates trust and confidence in pharmacists. Improved understanding of what matters to women and insight into inclusivity, health inequalities, cultural awareness and barriers to excellent care, strengthens communication and improves health outcomes for women.

Pharmacists should be aware that in some cultures and languages, there may be no direct word for menopause, menstruation or female anatomy. This linguistic gap can contribute to misunderstanding, stigma, and reduced access to appropriate care. Alternative ways to describe symptoms and experiences should be sought, especially when working with patients from diverse backgrounds.

By recognising and responding to these communication barriers, pharmacists can foster trust, improve health literacy, and ensure equitable access to care for all women.

By taking time to listen and establish supportive care connections, pharmacists can identify best practices, recognise areas of concern, and highlight gaps in women’s health services that warrant development and improvement.

Creating an environment where women feel heard, encourages open conversations about medications and treatment options, empowering women to make informed choices about managing their current and future health.

Pharmacists should be included at every stage of women's healthcare, using their expertise in medicines and patient care to shape policy, redesign systems, and improve services.

Pharmacist representation and visibility on working groups, committees, and panels advising on women’s health is essential to shaping the future development and structure of women’s health services.

Seeking out and capitalising on opportunities to network and engage with professional health contacts increases awareness of proposed projects, pilot studies and collaborative opportunities.

Establishing strong relationships with third sector representatives also enhances understanding of existing and emerging barriers, supporting the delivery of high-quality and equitable health services for women.

Pharmacists should have protected learning time to support development and knowledge of advancements in Women’s Health. This will promote confident engagement with wider multi-professional teams in an advisory and expert capacity.

All pharmacists should have access to a shared patient record to enable them to prescribe accurately and provide safe treatment and advice for women (as well as other patients).

RPS continues to advocate for consistent and timely access to shared patient records across all pharmacy sectors in the UK. This access is essential to delivering safer integrated care and enhancing prescribing safety.

As the role of pharmacists evolves - with all pharmacists expected to qualify as prescribers by 2026 - equitable access to shared records will become even more critical. However, current access levels remain inconsistent across the UK, and work is ongoing to expand and standardise this vital capability.

In Scotland, progress is underway following a vote by MSPs to support development of an integrated digital patient care record. This will enable secure and efficient data sharing between social services and health care providers, ensuring safe and seamless care. 

The Welsh Government has tasked Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) with creating a National Target Architecture to enable integrated, patient-centred care through better data sharing. A Shared Medicines Record will be a core element of this future system. NHS England is working with Pharmacy First IT suppliers to add GP Connect Access Record: Structured functionality. This will provide pharmacists with real-time, read-only access to key parts of a patient’s GP record (medications, observations, investigations) directly within their systems. 

These important initiatives align with the RPS objectives set out in the Pharmacy 2030 Vision, calling for a single shared electronic patient record with read/ write access for all.

Pharmacists across all sectors must be supported by evidence-based education and training to strengthen prescribing confidence and delivery of consistent, high-quality women's health services.

Empowering pharmacists to confidently prescribe and deliver first-class women’s health services must be supported by robust and responsive educational infrastructures. These should be developed and regularly reviewed by experts in women’s health and aligned with current clinical guidelines and national government policies.

A broad range of e-learning modules, webinars, and educational programmes are available from a variety of sources to support pharmacists in developing their expertise across key areas of women’s health, including bone health, lifestyle impact, menstrual care, cardiovascular disease, and perinatal mental health. Educational materials must address competency in approaching culturally sensitive conversations, incorporate appropriate and adapted education resources and address disparities in women’s health. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society career curricula provide frameworks for pharmacist career progression with mapped learning outcomes.

Valuable resources explore current challenges and barriers in women’s healthcare, spotlight emerging concerns and signpost to clinical experts and third sector organisations. They should provide practical, evidence-based guidance that can be embedded into pharmacy practice and shared directly with patients—for example, raising awareness of how heart disease presents differently in women and remains under-recognised.

Importantly, these learning opportunities can also support pharmacists in expanding their clinical roles in new and evolving areas of care, including pharmacogenomics, HPV vaccination programmes and the insertion of contraceptive implants—ensuring high-quality, accessible services that meet the specific needs of women across the UK.

Developing pharmacists' awareness of digital health and AI strategies will help identify and prioritise data to support, shape and improve women's health.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents significant opportunities to transform how pharmacists and their team’s work. Building a strong understanding of artificial intelligence is key to supporting the digital evolution of pharmacy practice. Detailed examples of AI applications in pharmacy can be found in the RPS policy Artificial Intelligence in Pharmacy.

The emerging role of digital healthcare is pivotal in capturing and prioritising data, informing population health strategies and promoting preventative and proactive patient care.

Increasing awareness of these digital initiatives will help pharmacists identify opportunities for timely intervention and drive improvements in population health and overall well-being.

An example of this is the CLOCS-1 study, which uses data from pharmacy purchases, captured through loyalty cards, to identify women managing symptoms that may indicate early signs of ovarian cancer. This innovative approach supports earlier detection and intervention, demonstrating how digital tools can enhance population health outcomes and inform targeted care.

Digital self-management tools - including health apps and digital health wallets - can further empower women to monitor and manage their health more effectively. Femtech, or female technology, encompasses digital products, services, and solutions designed specifically for women's health. Pharmacists play a vital role in this space, particularly in supporting medication access, patient education, and addressing health needs related to reproductive health, menstrual cycles, fertility, and menopause.

Embedding digital capabilities frameworks within pharmacy education and professional development, empowers pharmacists to develop skills while building confidence and awareness of advancements and evolving technologies. This in turn can lead to transformation of healthcare delivery through digital technology.

Additionally, integrating digital capabilities into pharmacy education and professional development, empowers pharmacists with the skills and confidence needed to navigate emerging technologies. This enhances patient care, improves operational efficiency, and supports data-driven decision-making. Ultimately, it accelerates the digital transformation of healthcare delivery and prepares pharmacists for evolving roles in women’s health. This is supported by the RPS Digital Capabilities for the Pharmacy Workforce position statement.

Women's health should be championed across pharmacist training from undergraduate to postgraduate and embedded in all pharmacy sectors to promote and identify opportunities to integrate women's healthcare into existing pharmacy workstreams.

Women’s health should be incorporated into pharmacist training, prescribing training and speciality-specific learning and prioritised alongside other clinical specialities to ensure high-quality care and greater representation of pharmacists in this field. In the UK, women make up approximately 50.75% of the population, yet the number of pharmacists specialising in women’s health does not currently reflect this demographic.

Improved awareness will also help build a better understanding of pharmacists’ role in women’s healthcare among the public and other health professionals. 

Feedback from the June 2025 Common Registration Assessment highlighted that trainee pharmacists are expected to deliver person-centred care in reproductive health and treatment options for managing menopause related symptoms.

At the Clinical Pharmacy Congress 2025, pharmacists on the Women’s Health Panel—representing a broad range of sectors—showcased strong examples of how they identified opportunities within their scope of practice to embed women’s health awareness and service delivery. These initiatives, spanning areas such as contraception and menopause care, demonstrated how small changes can have a significant impact on patient care. 

Collaborating with peers and sharing best practices, pilot studies, training, and audit findings can also drive meaningful improvements by highlighting service gaps, informing solutions, and demonstrating the impact of change.

Further examples of integrating women’s health into professional pharmacy practice are detailed in Appendix 2 – Examples of Professional Practice.

Pharmacists can promote sustainable healthcare and reduce ecological harm by adopting environmentally conscious approaches to women's health prescribing and treatment, while actively engaging patients in these efforts.

Medicines are one of the most common interventions in healthcare. Keeping up to date with advances in practice and prescribing with environmentally informed choices, will help the profession to play its part in climate action and sustainable healthcare.

Sustainable prescribing for women is an emerging priority in both clinical pharmacy practice and health policy. It refers to prescribing practices that are clinically effective, patient-centred, environmentally responsible, cost-conscious, and equitable across the life course. Becoming familiar with this approach allows for informed and shared decision-making with patients.

Pharmacists should familiarise themselves with current government environmental and health strategies and NHS green initiatives and integrate them into everyday practice.

The RPS Greener Pharmacy Guides and Toolkit offer practical resources to support pharmacy teams in building a greener, more sustainable workplace culture.