CNN
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In a sudden turnaround, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that there are no plans to cut funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, a groundbreaking research project focusing on preventing illness in older women. The move comes after a wave of concern and criticism about the threat to research over the years.
For decades, initiatives implemented by the National Institutes of Health have tracked the health of tens of thousands of women to understand how to reduce risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
Key findings from the project include the risk of using certain types of hormone therapy for menopause, which will help prevent an estimated 126,000 breast cancer diagnosis. The work has published over 2,400 scientific publications overall, and has shaped clinical practice and public health policies in multiple US areas.
On Monday, the program announced that HHS plans to end its contract with the Regional Centre in September.
Investigators were waiting for more details Thursday when an update from the HHS indicated plans had changed.
“These studies represent important contributions to our better understanding of women’s health,” HHS told CNN in a statement. “NIH initially exceeded its internal targets to reduce contracts, but is now working to fully restore funding for these essential research efforts. NIH is deeply committed to promoting public health through rigorous gold standard research and is taking immediate steps to ensure the continuity of these research.”
In a social media post Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “We have not finished this study.”
“We all recognize that this project is a mission important to women’s health,” he writes.
Experts say reducing one of the biggest long-term research on women’s health is a significant loss, a significant loss that puts irreplaceable data sets and critical research already in the works.
“We already have a serious gap in women’s health, but we need to address it,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, director of the Women’s Health Specialty Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and medical director of the Menopause Society, when funding cuts were announced.
The Trump administration has identified addressing chronic illness as one of its top priorities, and women’s health initiatives have a unique ability to do so.
“When we compare people to ourselves over time, it allows us to answer questions more clearly about the causes and factors that contribute to the development of the types of diseases we are concerned about, such as the types of illnesses we are concerned about, cancer, dementia, diabetes, fractures, etc. that we are all concerned about.” “The ability to follow a large number of people over time.”
The launch of the Women’s Health Initiative in 1992 marks a major shift in the way medical research saw it as women, experts say.
“For many years, we have considered women to be essentially small men when it comes to many chronic illnesses,” Thurston said.
There was a general view that women’s health was about “bikini medicine” and focused on the area of the body that bikini covers.
“I think the Women’s Health Initiative and subsequent research really highlight the unique characteristics of women and unique contributors, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, dementia, and brain aging,” Thurston said. “It means that women cannot trade with men and that women’s health is more than just bikini medication.”
Dr. Stella Dantas, president of US obstetricians and gynecologists, said the historical lack of women in medical research is why funding projects like the Women’s Health Initiative is so important.
“The WHI Centre is driving research into treatments that is responsible for valuable data on treatments and to address some of the most common health concerns in postmenopausal women, such as heart disease and breast cancer,” she said in a statement.
Thurston says several major findings from the Women’s Health Initiative have been published at the formative period of her career, studying menopause, cardiovascular disease and brain aging, leading to her current job.
“This study has answered some really important questions about health issues that are truly common,” she said. “We need to maintain science. It’s very important if you want to prevent heart disease, prevent cancer, keep your bones healthy and your brain healthy. You need to do this research.”
Sandee Lamotte of CNN contributed to this report.