I was fairly surprised, shocked even, when I first learned that women or even female rodents were rarely used in the past for studies in health, even when researching the safety and efficacy of products for women like birth control pills. I discovered that anomaly when I became a member of a women s group called Access Circles, an organization of women formed to help promote access in all areas from business and medicine to the arts and geopolitics. I thought surely that must have been a misprint, but research proved it true. Since then I have joined the board of Women s Health Access Matters (WHAM!) to support its CEO s efforts to level the playing field in women s health matters. The CEO of both Access Circles and WHAM is Carolee. She will be speaking about this topic on a panel tomorrow in honor of National Women s Health Week.