President Biden to Sign Executive Order Expanding Medical Research on Women
In a groundbreaking move, President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order on Monday that will significantly expand the scope of medical research on women. The White House announced that this order will be the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to improve research on women’s health.
Despite women making up half of the US population, research on their health has been lacking. It was not until the 1990s that the federal government began requiring women to be included in federally funded medical research. Dr. Carolyn Mazure, head of the White House initiative on women’s health, highlighted the need for more effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a wide range of health conditions in women.
This initiative comes at a crucial time as women’s reproductive rights are under threat following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, who previously announced $100 million in funding for women’s health, will unveil these latest measures at a Women’s History Month reception at the White House.
One of the key components of the new measures is the launch of a new effort at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will allocate $200 million in 2025 to fund interdisciplinary research on women’s health. This initiative will focus on identifying and rectifying research gaps in the study of menopause and the treatment of menopausal symptoms.
White House advisor Jennifer Klein emphasized the importance of studying how medications affect men and women differently, as well as the need for further research on conditions like heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and women-specific issues such as endometriosis and uterine cancers.
The executive order is a significant step towards prioritizing and integrating women’s health in federal research, and it is expected to have a substantial impact on advancing medical knowledge and improving healthcare outcomes for women across the country.
For more information, visit the Office on Women’s Health website.
Source: White House, press release, March 18, 2024; Associated Press