Reporting Women’s Health: Structural Bias and Weaponized Pseudoscience
Wednesday, 14 Oktober | 10.30 am – 12.00 noon | Herrenhausen Palace
- Vladislav Veližanin, Advocacy Officer at the Brussels-based European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Belgium
- Maria Cristina Valsecchi, freelance journalist, member of SWIM – Science Writers in Italy
- Prof. Dr. Julia Sacher, psychiatrist and neuroscientist of Cognitive Neuroendocrinology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
- Goda Raibytė-Aleksa, freelance journalist, Lithuania [Moderator]
For decades, women’s bodies, symptoms, and health needs have been underrepresented in biomedical research, creating significant gaps in knowledge. These blind spots affect everything from diagnosis and treatment to public understanding of health. At the same time, misinformation and pseudoscience increasingly exploit these gaps, offering simplistic explanations and false certainty where evidence is still evolving. In the field of sexual and reproductive health, such narratives are often amplified by organized advocacy groups seeking to influence public opinion and policymaking.
This panel will explore how incomplete, distorted, or intentionally misleading information shapes women’s health and reproductive autonomy. We will examine the role of structural bias in research, discuss why knowledge gaps can make people more vulnerable to misinformation, and consider how political shifts across Europe may affect research priorities, funding, and access to evidence-based healthcare.
Vladislav Veližanin
Vladislav Veližanin is an Advocacy Officer at the Brussels-based European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, a leading network of parliamentarians committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health, rights, and gender equality. His main focus is original research on sexual and reproductive rights policies and the movements challenging them. Vladislav holds a master’s degree in political science from Tallinn University, and he is an alumnus of the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship at Wake Forest University.
Maria Cristina Valsecchi
Maria Cristina Valsecchi is a science journalist based in Italy, a member of SWIM – Science Writers in Italy. She has worked as a freelance journalist for nearly 30 years, mainly focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights. She currently collaborates with the web outlet Scienza in Rete, the project Fatti per capire of the Milan Museum of Science and Technology, and the quarterly magazine Io e il mio Bambino.
Prof. Dr. Julia Sacher
Prof. Dr. Julia Sacher is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and Professor of Cognitive Neuroendocrinology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. She is also the founding director of the Leipzig Center of Female Health & Gender Medicine. Her research explores how hormonal transitions – including the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause, shape the human brain, cognition, and mental health. Prof. Sacher has pioneered the integration of sex and gender as key variables in neuroscience and medical imaging, helping transform our understanding of women’s brain health. Her work has been recognized with numerous international awards and fellowships, and she is a leading advocate for precision medicine that accounts for biological sex and hormonal change.
Goda Raibytė-Aleksa
Goda Raibytė-Aleksa is an award-winning freelance science journalist, bestselling author, and science communicator based in Vilnius, Lithuania. With more than 15 years of experience in science journalism, she has covered topics ranging from space exploration to women’s health. As a 2025 EMBO Maria Leptin Science Journalism Fellow, she investigates systemic gaps in women’s health research, sex bias in medicine, and the impact these have on healthcare and public understanding of science.