President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a new division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and White House task force centered on women’s health.
Trump signed the order alongside First Lady Melania Trump, who reportedly pushed for the action.
“Despite considerable advances in biomedical science, many diseases and conditions that disproportionately or uniquely affect women have not received the level of research, clinical attention, and treatment that other diseases and conditions have received,” the order read.
Areas of further research needed for women’s health, according to the order, include cancer, mental health, endometriosis, fibroids, polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome (PMOS), menopause and more.
Through the executive order, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will establish a Women’s Health Division at NIH within 90 days.
The division, in coordination with the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, will aim to increase scientific review of women’s health conditions in all phases of life; advance and coordinate research; promote innovation and advanced research technologies and more.
The order also states the division will “develop accountability” for its grant recipients to “enhance adherence to the NIH policy requiring research to account for sex as a biological variable.”
Moreover, the division will work with relevant federal partners to continue to expand strategic coordination and policy leadership, career development and advancement of research across disciplines, according to the order.
“For generations, women have faced unanswered questions about conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect them,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This new NIH division will confront those questions with gold-standard science, accelerate research into prevention and treatment, and turn medical discoveries into better care for women and girls across America.”
Kennedy will also co-chair the newly established White House Women’s Health Task Force alongside White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The task force will also include various federal officials, including the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
HHS will fund the administrative costs of the task force. Its goal is to ensure a “comprehensive approach” to women’s health from the federal government that recognizes evolving health needs across the lifespan.
Specific functions of the task force include:
- Advancing women’s health science through strengthened research and initiatives
- Advancing patient-centered care through support of education and research into coordinated, preventive and woman-centered care
- Accelerating evidence-based strategies to increase innovation and implementation of research into policies, evidence-based medicine and best clinical practices