Student Organization Educates Belmont On Women's Health

It started with a run of the mill assignment for her speech class, an assignment most Belmont University students do. 

Rachel Verbiar stood in front her speech class as a second semester freshman and began to talk about the importance of sexual education and the lack of quality sexual education in America, specifically for women.  

Her call to action? Mandatory sexual education classes at Belmont. 

While, no, this did not inspire a drastic change in Belmont’s curriculum, it did inspire something else. 

“When I gave that speech, everyone had said, ‘I would go to a WELLCore about that,’” Verbiar said. 

Excited, Verbiar went home to her apartment in Dickens Hall and told her roommate about her idea on how to help her peers learn about sexual health. After a night spent planning and mapping out ideas, she had a club: the Belmont Women’s Health Club. 

Since its founding in August of 2023, the club’s focus evolved as Verbiar became more aware of issues women face in medical settings, and now she uses the club to help women advocate for themselves. 

This passion comes not only from hearing other women talk about their experiences in medical settings, but from personal experience as well.   

As a high schooler, Verbiar experienced concerning symptoms that led her to believe she might have polycystic ovarian syndrome, an incurable chronic disease that affects women. 

She went to her doctor looking to get tested for PCOS, but her doctor refused, offering birth control as the solution to her problem. 

She was already taking birth control. 

Through the club Verbiar learned her experience was not unique as several other members of the club recounted similar incidents in which doctors offered birth control as the end all be all solution to their medical concerns.  

Verbiar believes there’s a reason for this. 

“There’s a gap in education about women’s health, specifically research on women’s bodies and different diseases that only affect women,” Verbiar said. 

Clinical trials sponsored by the National Institute of Health have only required female participants since 1993, leaving a large gap in knowledge on female bodies. Even today women account for only 40% of participants in clinical trials for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and psychiatric disorders, despite making up 51% of the United States’ population, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. 

Now, face illuminated white by a projector as she stands in the front of a dark classroom in the Janet Ayers Academic Center, Rachel Verbiar speaks earnestly to her fellow students about female representation in medicine, reflecting the clubs shift away from a solely sexual health focus. 

“The overall purpose of the club is to educate everybody, not just women, about women’s health and the way it’s been under researched in history,” said Lindsey Simpson, the club’s secretary.  

The process for starting the club did not come without challenges though, as Belmont’s administration held some reservations about the club and its potential for causing political strife. 

“In the current political landscape women’s health has become synonymous with abortion access,” said Mya Conrad, president of the College Republicans, who encountered the club at Belmont’s club fair.  

However, Verbiar intentionally distanced the club from partisanship, instead focusing on the facts with the intent of educating people rather than swaying them one way or the other. 

“They seem to be representing what women’s health topics are supposed to be,” Conrad said about the club. 

Members of the club believe that politicizing health would detract from its purpose and ostracize people who might benefit from the information they provide.  

“I don’t think the well-being and health of people should ever be political because no matter what side of politics you’re on, you want people to be healthy,” said Cecilia DeLeon, vice president of the club. 

Now through events such as period drives, cancer walks and informational sessions, the Belmont Women’s Health Club sees a wide variety of students attend their meetings, and not just women.  

Thanks to the WELL Core system at Belmont, male students looking to meet graduation requirements find their way to the club’s meetings.  

“I really think it’s powerful that people who would never have sought out this information in their own time are getting to see this and learn,” Verbiar said. 

This further shows the mission of the club at work, as at the club’s core is the importance of education without ostracization. 

“It seems trivial, but you have to know about something first before anything can be done about it,” Simpson said. 

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This article was written by Nolan Russell