The Invisible Woman

She remembers the moment it all came crashing down: a missed mammogram, an undiagnosed thyroid issue, a spiral of exhaustion she chalked up to getting older. What no one saw was the invisible load she carried: managing a household, juggling aging parents and teenagers, showing up at work with a brave face. Like so many women, she didn’t feel sick, exactly. She felt unseen.

Maybe you know her. Maybe you know someone like her. Maybe she’s you.

For too many women, feeling invisible has been the norm — until now. Originally launched in 2024 to serve women in midlife and later, the Cleveland Clinic Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center (WCHRC) is already expanding to address earlier stages of life where gaps exist. More than a specialty clinic, the WCHRC represents a new way of delivering care: coordinated, connected and informed by research across the entire spectrum of women’s health.

“Our goal is to help women navigate this journey,” says WCHRC Co-Founder Beri Ridgeway, MD, Executive Vice President and Enterprise Chief of Staff at Cleveland Clinic. “Taking a holistic approach, including menopausal and hormonal health, reproductive health, mental health, chronic conditions and preventive care, is critical to optimize health outcomes.”

What began as a focused initiative has quickly evolved into something much larger: a revolutionary approach to women’s healthcare that addresses not just medical needs, but decades of systemic neglect in research, treatment and care coordination.

The numbers tell a stark story. More than 63 million women in the United States are 50 years of age or older, with approximately 6,000 women entering menopause each day. Yet until recently, most medical research excluded women entirely, leaving physicians — and patients — to make critical health decisions based on incomplete data.

“Everything that happens to you in a doctor’s office started with research,” says Serpil Erzurum, MD, Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Research and Academic Officer and holder of the Alfred Lerner Memorial Chair in Innovative Biomedical Research. “There is a tremendous gap in our knowledge with how women’s health progresses over their lifetime.”

That gap isn’t just an academic concern — it can be life-threatening. For decades, women experienced higher rates of adverse drug reactions and misdiagnoses partly because medications and treatments were developed primarily through studies on men. The assumption was that women were simply “small men” who would respond similarly to treatments. That assumption proved dangerously wrong. 

A VISIONARY PARTNERSHIP

The transformation began with the convergence of clinical expertise and advocacy vision. Maria Shriver, who had already established the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement at Cleveland Clinic, brought years of experience championing research into why women account for two-thirds of Alzheimer’s cases. When Cleveland Clinic leadership recognized the opportunity to expand this model into comprehensive women’s health, they found a natural partnership.

“Maria’s unwavering commitment to raising awareness and driving meaningful change aligns perfectly with the mission of our new center,” says Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, MD, holder of the Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair. “Her passion for advancing the quality of care for women is remarkable and will help us transform how we deliver care for women today and into the future.”

As Co-Founder of the WCHRC, Shriver is helping to shape an ambitious vision: Create a place where women can finally receive the comprehensive, research-backed care they deserve.

The timing couldn’t have been better. Cleveland Clinic had the clinical expertise, research infrastructure and institutional commitment to make it happen.

“I’ve always believed our nation needed a first-class comprehensive women’s health center, and now we have one,” Shriver says. “This is a place for women at every stage of life where they will feel seen and will get the research they need and the care they deserve, from their brains to their bones.” 

REWRITING THE PLAYBOOK

To achieve that vision, the WCHRC had to rethink healthcare delivery. Rather than just treating symptoms, it reimagines how women experience healthcare from the ground up.

The center integrates specialty care across multiple domains: behavioral health; breast health; cardiovascular care; endocrinology and weight management; menopause; osteoporosis and metabolic bone density; wellness and disease prevention; and healthy aging. But integration alone isn’t enough. The real innovation lies in how these services are delivered.

Enter the patient navigators: a dedicated team of guides, advocates and coordinators for women patients entering the system. Instead of spending hours on the phone scheduling multiple appointments across different departments, women can access comprehensive care through a single point of contact.

“When you call, the navigators try to understand what your concerns are,” says WCHRC Medical Director Pelin Batur, MD. “Based on your concerns, we’ll get you connected with the right specialty team.”

The impact has been immediate. Since launching in 2024, the WCHRC has served more than 10,000 unique patients and facilitated more than 22,000 appointments across Cleveland Clinic’s health system. Patient satisfaction scores consistently rate the navigation service as exceptional, with patients reporting feeling truly heard for the first time in their healthcare journey.

Perhaps more importantly, the center has begun addressing the research gaps that have left women’s health in the shadows for decades. The WCHRC is building a research registry that already includes more than 900,000 patients, creating an unprecedented database for studying how women’s health evolves across their lifespans. 

FILLING THE KNOWLEDGE GAPS

The research component represents a fundamental shift in how medical science approaches women’s health. Historically, women have been excluded from clinical trials for seemingly practical reasons — 
monthly hormonal cycles made studies more complex; pregnancy concerns created liability issues; and researchers preferred “homogeneous” populations for cleaner data.

The consequences were profound. Medications that worked well in male test subjects often produced different effects — or dangerous side effects — in women. Heart disease in women was frequently misdiagnosed because symptoms differed from the “classic” male presentation. Even basic questions about how women’s bodies change during menopause remained largely unanswered.

“We’ve had an amazing period of over 100 years of discovery in science, but for the most part, women were not included in research,” Dr. Erzurum says. “In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, people became aware that some medications that were developed didn’t really work on women, or worked in ways that caused adverse events.”

The WCHRC is working to change that dynamic. The center conducts research specifically designed to understand how women’s bodies function differently from men’s, how hormonal changes affect disease risk and how treatments can be optimized for female physiology.

Recent research has already yielded ground-breaking insights. Studies funded by the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement have revealed that the menopausal brain actually shrinks and changes in measurable ways, providing biological validation for symptoms like brain fog and memory concerns that were previously dismissed as psychological.

“We were able to see that the menopausal and perimenopausal brain shrinks and changes,” Shriver says. “So when you think, ‘Wow, I’m feeling this way, and I’m in perimenopause or menopause’ — you’re right. We can now see it because of research.”

A NEW MODEL FOR CARE

Healthcare systems across the country struggle with fragmented care, poor care coordination and patient dissatisfaction. The model developed at the WCHRC offers a potential solution.

By centralizing care coordination, focusing on patient experience and integrating research with clinical practice, the center has created a blueprint that could be applied to other patient populations. The key insight: When patients feel heard, supported and properly coordinated through the system, both satisfaction and outcomes improve dramatically.

“We’re aligning resources so that our smart and passionate caregivers can answer your questions and get you to the right service at the right time,” Dr. Ridgeway says.

The WCHRC’s shared medical appointments exemplify this approach. Instead of having rushed individual consultations, small groups of women with similar concerns meet with specialists for extended sessions. Patients get more time with experts, learn from each other’s experiences and develop supportive relationships that extend beyond the clinical setting. Since the center’s launch, more than 1,200 shared medical appointments have been held for menopause alone, with additional sessions addressing brain fog, osteoporosis, weight management and other health concerns.

For Dr. Batur, these sessions can be game changers. “This is a favorite part of my workweek,” she says. “You get more time to hear about people’s experiences and get the answers to things that you didn’t even think to ask.” 

A Movement Takes Shape