Introduction
We are commencing a parliamentary meeting on women’s health in Geneva, offering a strategic opportunity to connect the global agenda with the progress and remaining tasks in women’s health. In this article, I propose interpreting this international dialogue as a mirror that compels us to critically assess what we have accomplished and what still remains for Mexican women to fully exercise their right to health.
The Parliamentary Meeting on Women’s Health in Genebra
From January 19 to 21, 2026, we will host a parliamentary dialogue on women’s health in Genebra, convened by UNITE and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. This gathering will bring together legislators from around the world, multilateral organizations, and academic centers. The central objective is to build political strategies for improving women’s health outcomes based on evidence, experience exchange, and strengthening health governance.
The thematic axes of the meeting are particularly pertinent to Mexico: non-communicable diseases and cancer in women, mental health of women and girls, strengthening health systems (access, quality, data), and promoting female leadership in health decision-making.
Relevance to Mexico
Mexico is undergoing an epidemiological transition, with non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory conditions becoming significant causes of premature death and disability. The Sectoral Health Program 2025-2030 acknowledges this shift and sets a strategic indicator to reduce the probability of death between 30 and 70 years due to these diseases, decreasing from 15.05 in 2023 to 13.50 in 2030.
For women, this burden is doubly critical due to the combination of determinants: inequalities in access, backlogs in sexual and reproductive health, and territorial, cultural, and economic barriers. The breast cancer screening coverage for women aged 50 to 69 is only 20.2%, far from the OECD average, resulting in delayed diagnoses, increased mortality, and growing costs for families and the health system.
Legal Framework
The General Health Law already recognizes non-communicable diseases, including cancer, as matters of general health and imposes obligations in prevention, early detection, registration, and control. Official norms like NOM 041 (breast cancer) and NOM 014 (cervical cancer) are now mandatory instruments that provide operational content to this legal mandate. The challenge lies not in the absence of regulations but in the capacity to fulfill these obligations with effective access to every health center, community, and woman requiring timely detection.
Mental Health of Women and Girls
The Geneva agenda also addresses women’s and girls’ mental health, a field with accumulating concerning evidence and still insufficient institutional responses. The Sectorial Program documents that 14.9% of the population exhibited moderate to severe depressive symptoms in 2023, with diagnoses primarily being anxiety (52.8%) and depression (25.1) in 2024, predominantly affecting women, adolescents, and young adults.
In adolescents, suicide attempts have increased by over 600% since 2006, accompanied by a sustained rise in the suicide rate among women aged 10 to 19. This reveals the depth of the crisis, with clear determinants such as gender-based violence, care overload, precarious labor, poverty, and educational exclusion. Although the Sectorial Program acknowledges these factors, it has yet to fully integrate a gender perspective.
The General Health Law already includes a specific chapter on mental health, recognizing individuals with mental disorders as rights-holders and explicitly linking mental health to violence, addictions, suicidal behaviors, and family environments. This framework enables the design of differentiated policies for girls, adolescents, and women. However, translating this legal enablement into accessible service networks, early detection in schools and primary care, and community programs reaching before crises remains to be achieved.
Strengthening Health Systems
A central debate in the meeting will be strengthening health systems, focusing on effective access, quality of care, and strategic use of information. Mexico has made significant strides in these areas, both in the Sectorial Program 2025-2030 and the recently published reform in the Federal Register of the General Health Law.
In terms of access, the Sectorial Program acknowledges system fragmentation, “health deserts,” and unit saturation, proposing to strengthen primary care, expand infrastructure, consolidate IMSS Bienestar, and bring services closer through mobile units, brigades, and telemedicine. The legal reform converts these guidelines into obligations: creating integrated service networks, enabling inter-institutional service exchange, promoting the Master Infrastructure Plan, and providing a comprehensive framework for telemedicine and digital health.
Regarding quality, the law reinforces evidence-based medicine, establishment certification, and mandatory bioethics committees, ethics in research, and biosafety with multidisciplinary integration. In data matters, the National Health Information Base and the National Health Information System are consolidated, with nominal records, electronic medical records, and interoperability, designed as tools to enhance diagnoses, treatments, and management rather than mere statistical exercises.
Women’s Leadership in Health Governance
The Geneva meeting emphasizes an often-overlooked aspect: women’s leadership in health sector governance. The Sectorial Program acknowledges that, despite women being the majority in the health workforce, particularly in nursing, community care, and caregiving, their presence drastically decreases at decision-making levels, governing bodies, research, and budget priority setting.
The General Health Law is grounded on the constitutional principle of equality and non-discrimination, obliging services to be provided without sex or gender distinction. However, it has yet to establish specific measures ensuring paritary participation in health system governance bodies. The consequence is that women primarily appear as subjects of attention rather than power, limiting the systematic incorporation of rights and gender perspectives in decision-making.
Conclusion
As a legislator from the National Action Party of Mexico participating in the Genebra parliamentary dialogue, I see this as a double opportunity. It allows me to share recent regulatory advances in access, quality, data, and prioritizing chronic diseases, cancer, and women’s mental health as public health concerns. Simultaneously, it compels us to honestly examine internal, territorial, socioeconomic, and gender gaps and construct the next generation of reforms that convert rights into measurable realities in the daily lives of Mexican women.
*The author (www.ectorjaime.mx) is a general surgery specialist, certified in public health, and holds doctorates in health sciences and public administration. He is a legislator and advocate for Mexico’s public health, a reelected member of the PAN group in the LXVI Legislature.
