Trinity Centre for Reproductive Sciences and Women’s Health to shine a spotlight on often overlooked conditions like PMOS, endometriosis, infertility, abnormal uterine bleeding and menopause-related health needs
Transforming clinical care, education and policy in women’s and reproductive health is the ambition of a new Irish transdisciplinary research centre.
The Trinity Centre for Reproductive Sciences and Women’s Health (TCRW) brings together more than 70 clinicians, scientists, social scientists and policy-relevant researchers across 20 disciplines at Trinity College Dublin and its clinical partners, including St James’s Hospital, Tallaght University Hospital, the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, and Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin.
The initiative will create a coordinated research ecosystem spanning discovery science, clinical research and policy in addressing important evidence gaps in women’s and reproductive health.
The centre will be led by co-directors Prof Cliona O’Farrelly, Dr Lisa Owens and Dr Michelle Lavin.
“TCRW will bring together expertise across reproductive sciences and women’s health to create a more connected and collaborative research community,” said Dr Lavin, who is a consultant haematologist at the National Coagulation Centre in St James’s Hospital.
“The measure of our success will not simply be publications or research grants; ultimately, it will be improved evidence, earlier diagnosis, better treatments, more equitable healthcare and better outcomes for people affected by reproductive health conditions.”
The centre’s objectives are organised around five integrated areas: research; shaping clinical practice and policymaking; dedicated policy brokerage and structured engagement; education and training; and public engagement and visibility.
Its three principal research pillars are translational reproductive science; lifespan reproductive research; and menstrual disorders and fertility, with inclusion, equity and access embedded across all three.
The centre will collaborate closely with patient representatives and advocacy groups, ensuring that lived experience and patient priorities inform research priorities and engagement activities.
The Centre was officially launched this week by Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
“We know that, for sustained improvements in reproductive and women’s health, we need to build research infrastructure to generate the evidence on which those services are based,” she said.
“I congratulate Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital on their leadership in opening this centre which addresses a critical societal and medical issue. This centre will have a real impact on evidence gaps and delayed diagnosis and I look forward to continuing to engage with the centre as we – together – work to improve our health services.”
Women’s health and reproductive health have historically been under-represented in research, contributing to important evidence gaps, delayed diagnosis and inconsistent care pathways.
Conditions including polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), endometriosis, infertility, menopause-related health needs and abnormal uterine bleeding carry substantial personal, societal and economic burdens. Male reproductive health and subfertility are also comparatively underexplored, despite their importance to infertility and family health.