The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is cutting off funding to the long-running Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) in September, a move that leaves the fate of one of the world's largest women’s health studies hanging in the balance.
The agency is canceling contracts to the WHI’s regional centers by the end of September, the WHI said in an April 21 announcement. The initiatives’ coordinating center, housed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, will continue running until January 2026, after which “its funding remains uncertain,” according to the announcement.
At the time of publication, the HHS and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center had not responded to Fierce's request for comment.
WHI regional centers are spread across the country at locations in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, California and Washington.
The original WHI study began in 1991 with funding from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The study enrolled 161,808 women between the ages of 50 and 79, investigating strategies to prevent heart disease, osteoporosis and breast and colorectal cancer.
After the initial study wrapped in 2005, the initiative has continued through multiple extension studies that follow original study participants, with more than 42,000 women still involved. Scientists associated with WHI have published more than 2,400 scientific papers and tracked tens of thousands of cancer cases, cardiovascular events and deaths, according to the recent announcement.
One of WHI’s signature discoveries came from the estrogen plus progestin trial, which proved that a common hormone therapy used to treat menopause can increase the risk of coronary heart disease and breast cancer. The evidence of the therapy’s dangers was so strong that the trial was halted three years early. The WHI says the release of the findings prevented an estimated 126,000 breast cancer cases and 76,000 cardiovascular disease cases over the following decade, representing $35.2 billion saved in direct medical costs.
Since then, WHI scientists have broadened their remit to a number of other age-related health issues, including frailty, vision loss, dementia, mental health and social isolation, according to the announcement.
The Trump administration’s canceling of women’s health funding stands in stark contrast to that of his predecessor. Former President Biden launched a women’s health effort in November 2023, helmed by former First Lady Jill Biden, and asked Congress for $12 billion to fund research on diseases that commonly affect women like rheumatoid arthritis, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease and endometriosis.