Update: As of April 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made the decision to restore funding for the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Regional Center contracts. Find the latest statement from SWHR on this topic here.
April 23, 2025—The Society for Women’s Health Research issued the following statement in response to the April 21 announcement from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) about WHI Regional Center contracts being canceled at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) is deeply concerned to learn that core funding for the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)—one of the most comprehensive and influential research projects in women’s health—is slated for termination at the end of the fiscal year.
This termination would be a serious blow to the prevention-focused efforts the administration is working to advance, as this long-term study is explicitly focused on strategies to prevent heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer, and osteoporosis in older American women. With nearly one in five women in the United States being age 50 or older and a growing aging population, the insights that can be gleaned from this study are needed now more than ever.
Launched in 1991 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the WHI has transformed our understanding of health in postmenopausal women, particularly in areas such as hormone therapy, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. Over the years, it has grown into a critical platform for investigating strategies to prevent the leading causes of death, disability, and frailty in older women. As the WHI website notes, “the breadth and richness of the WHI data allow for the exploration and investigation of many more research questions on women’s health and aging.”
The WHI exemplifies the kind of visionary, long-term research we should invest in to ensure that treatment and care can be better individualized, with the goal of preventing chronic conditions entirely. The WHI’s contributions have informed our overall understanding of disease in women and continue to hold promise for shaping clinical guidelines, driving disease prevention efforts, and supporting healthier aging for millions of women. Ending its funding would not only be a setback for science, but a disservice to generations of women who need better evidence-based care as they age.
This study is a national asset. It is critical that our leaders protect, sustain, and strengthen it.
SWHR strongly urges the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reconsider the decision to terminate this funding and work with Congress to ensure that there is robust funding and creation of a research infrastructure that supports the integration and prioritization of sex differences and women’s health research.