• Posted April 28, 2025

Landmark Women's Health Study Saved From Funding Cuts

MONDAY, April 28, 2025 (HealthDay News) — In a sudden about-face, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it won't slash funding for the Women's Health Initiative, a major research project focused on preventing disease in older women.

The decision follows concerns about a move to end contracts supporting the whole study, which has tracked the health of tens of thousands of women since 1992.

“These studies represent critical contributions to our better understanding of women’s health,” HHS said in a statement to CNN.

“While NIH initially exceeded its internal targets for contract reductions, we are now working to fully restore funding to these essential research efforts," the statement continued. "NIH remains deeply committed to advancing public health through rigorous gold standard research.”

The Women's Health Initiative, led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has made major discoveries over the years. 

For example, it uncovered the risks of certain types of hormone therapy after menopause, helping prevent an estimated 126,000 breast cancer cases. It also found that vitamin D supplements do not help prevent bone loss. 

Overall, the study has produced more than 2,400 scientific publications that have shaped clinical practices and public health policies.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on social media that "we all recognize that this project is mission critical for women's health." 

"We are not terminating this study," the post sad.

Experts said cutting the Women's Health Initiative would have been a major loss.

“We already have serious gaps in women’s health that need to be addressed,” Dr. Stephanie Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Women's Health Specialty Clinic and medical director for The Menopause Society, said to CNN.

The Trump administration has called chronic disease a priority, and experts say the Women's Health Initiative plays a key role in that.

“When you compare a person to themselves over time, it allows you to much more definitively answer questions about the causes or the factors that contribute to the development of those kinds of diseases that we’re all worried about, whether it’s heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes, fractures, things like that,” Rebecca Thurston, a women’s health researcher told CNN. 

For many years, women were thought of essentially as "small men when it came to many chronic diseases,” she added.

“The Women’s Health Initiative, and subsequently other studies, have really underscored that things like cardiovascular disease, stroke, dementia and brain aging, they have unique features in women and unique contributors,” Thurston said. “That means that we really have to study women specifically, that they’re not interchangeable with men, and that women’s health is more than bikini medicine.”

Dr. Stella Dantas, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the Women's Health Initiative is a vital source of invaluable data.

“We need to keep the science going," she told CNN. It’s so important if we want to prevent heart disease, prevent cancer, keep our bones healthy, keep our brains healthy. We need to be doing this research.”

More information

Learn more about the Women's Health Initiative.

SOURCE: CNN, April 24, 2025