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Nearly every woman can qualify for a medical research study at some time in her life. Even perfectly healthy people may participate in observational studies and Phase I clinical trials. If you are currently healthy but are at risk for a disease, you may qualify for a prevention study. And if you get sick, you may want to consider entering a clinical trial to test an investigational treatment. Each medical research study is carefully designed to answer particular questions. Part of the design, known as the protocol, includes deciding what particular qualities a person must have in order to qualify for the study. Examples of these qualifiers include your age, whether you have the disease or risk of disease that is being studied, whether you have other diseases or conditions, whether you are taking other medications, and so on. If you decide to volunteer for a study, the first step will be for the research coordinator to determine if you qualify. Often, studies have very limited qualifications, and if you don't qualify, don't worry - there will probably be other chances for you to volunteer.
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