Digital Health and Care Wales has shared details of improvements made to the NHS Wales women’s health website, incorporating feedback from users and introducing new functionality to make it easier for women to find local support.
The website, launched in March 2026, was reportedly developed through a collaboration between DHCW’s Corporate Applications team, the NHS Wales Women’s Health Network, Women’s Health Research Wales at Cardiff University, the Welsh Government, and the Co-production Lab Wales. It signposts women to available resources around menstrual health, endometriosis, contraception, abortion, pregnancy, pelvic health, menopause, and more.
Information provided on the website includes details of plans for new women’s health hubs to support women in accessing healthcare, with the aim of ensuring high-quality and personalised care is available to women across Wales. These new pathfinder hubs will bring together doctors, nurses, and health specialists to provide support for women’s health “at every stage of life”, DHCW states.
Clicking into any one of the topics on the main page leads into a list of links to programmes like the menstrual health project, a UK charity supporting people with menstrual health conditions and concerns. A contraception choices decision aid offers support in selecting from available methods of contraception, and women can access information on antenatal screening, mental health, and long term conditions.
Clearer language and better signposting are amongst the recent improvements to the website, according to DHCW, following feedback from users. New functionality includes a postcode finder to help women find services in their local area, a glossary explaining common health terminology, and a “Get Involved” section offering opportunities to participate in research studies or surveys.
“Women’s voices have been at the heart of the website from the beginning, and I’m proud to be part of a project that helps women and girls access trusted information, support and guidance when they need it most,” says Helen McGrath, DHCW senior content designer. More than 70 women representing communities across every health board region took part in engagement sessions over 15 weeks to shape the website’s content, language, navigation, accessibility, and mobile-first design, she continues. Lessons learned through this engagement work will also be used to inform other organisations across NHS Wales.
Wider trend: Women’s health
The renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England has been published, making a series of commitments to promoting women’s health and empowering women with a stronger say in their care, utilising digital tools to improve access, control, and care pathways for women’s health conditions. The strategy promises “immediate” change, represented by shorter waits for gynaecology care, easier access to contraception and screening closer to home, better information and more control over health through digital services, and more digital therapeutics bespoke to women. Menstrual and menopause-related problems will be prioritised as two of the first nine pathways established under the new virtual hospital NHS Online, and the NHS App will offer flexibility on appointment booking and communication with care professionals.
Augmented reality technology is being used at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to help patients and clinicians visualise women’s health conditions such as endometriosis and prepare for surgical excision. The technology offers a large-scale, close-up view of anatomically precise 3D models, aiding clinicians in explaining diagnoses or disease progression to patients, and improving understanding of complex women’s health conditions like deep infiltrating endometriosis and uterine fibroids. Clinicians are able to interact with the model from their computer, enlarging specific regions to show disease impact, and illustrating precisely where areas of endometriosis will be excised during surgery.
A new British-French partnership is set to tackle women’s health challenges and infectious diseases using emerging tech such as AI and supercomputers. As well as bringing together data from across the globe on a range of diseases such as E. coli, researchers from both nations will use novel imaging and AI technologies to study infections including TB, malaria, and emerging viruses, sharing research expertise, and working together on joint funding bids. £900,000 of UK government funding has been committed to furthering the partnership between the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, which hosts the Isambard‑AI supercomputer, and France’s computing centre GENCI.
