Women's health needs more funding.

This call was once again echoed by 12 different women's health services across Victoria this week.

The services - representing the interests of women across every region in the state - came together on Tuesday to call for an immediate uplift in investment to secure the health and wellbeing of Victorian women.

It comes after data was released showing Victorian women have gotten sicker, more anxious and depressed since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Women's Health Victoria chief executive Dianne Hill said the continued erosion of women's mental health, which has seen an increase in the diagnosis of depression and anxiety in women - up to 38.2 per cent from 29.0 per cent five years ago - was more than concerning.

"We are concerned that close to a third of Victorian women - 27 per cent - are reporting high or very high psychological distress and that self-harm hospitalisations are double the rate of Victorian men," she said.

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Another issue flagged in the forum was the worsening of women's fitness, body mass index and heart disease, along with growing cancer cases and less access to cancer treatment.

Women's Health Loddon Mallee chief executive and Women's Health Services Council chair Tricia Currie said in the Northwest of Victoria, health and wellbeing data maps were bright red, signalling alarming rates of poor health for rural women.

"Over 50 per cent of the women in the shires of Loddon and Central Goldfields have experienced anxiety and or depression," she said.

"Meanwhile, family violence rates in Mildura, Swan Hill, Central Goldfields and Greater Bendigo are among the highest in the state."

Even before the global pandemic the decline in women's health was an issue.

The pandemic had exacerbated gender inequality, with women being left to shoulder the burden of the pandemic and put the health needs of others before their own, significantly impacting their mental health and wellbeing, Ms Currie said.

"This is the time to uplift the investment in women's health services and primary prevention for a recovery which will benefit all," she said.

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"We need investment now to engage women in prevention and build their resilience through this crisis and beyond."

Together, the 12 health services are now calling on the state government to act now in addressing the "crisis of Victorian women's health".

"If we want Victorian Women's Health to improve and to promote COVID-19 recovery and resilience in our communities, we have to shift our minds from coins to cash."

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