Women's health trials in developing countries: under‐registration is the keyword?

Merriel et al. analysed the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) for trials that are within the broad remit of obstetricians and gynaecologists, and conducted in low- and middle-income countries between 2012 and 2014. They identified 509 registered trials evenly distributed across obstetrics and gynaecology. The question we must ask is whether the numbers represent a low level of interest in women's health in general or under-registration. There is clearly a need to disseminate this information widely, and to educate and advocate for trial registration globally and nationally. It would also be important to highlight the proportion of unregistered trials received by major biomedical journals to understand the scale of the problem better.