Despite deep partisan divides on issues such as abortion and access to contraceptives, lawmakers from both parties appear to have forged a cautious consensus on another women’s issue: menopause.
The agreement emerged earlier this year when a bipartisan group of women senators introduced legislation that would strengthen federal research on menopause and, for the first time, adjust existing federal programs on menopause and midlife women’s health.
At a press conference with actress Halle Berry in May, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Republican Shelley Moore Capito of Virginia touted the bill outside the Capitol. On Wednesday, Murray will highlight the bill for the first time during a panel discussion on Capitol Hill, along with Dennis Pines, a national campaigner to improve menopause care and executive producer of the documentary “The M Factor: Breaking the Silence of Menopause.” said Tamsen Fadal. Murray that such a discussion about menopause took place on Capitol Hill.
“As one of my Republican colleagues said, if men were going through something like this, they would already be funded.” [at NIH]but that’s not the case,” she said.
Kathryn Schubert, CEO of the Women’s Health Research Association, said this issue is drawing consensus among other women’s issues that are divided.
“We see this as an issue that has the potential to unite people in the women’s health field,” she said.
Schubert said the main problem holding back research on menopause is the inability to track it in the first place. Unlike other chronic or debilitating health conditions, menopause does not have a National Institutes of Health research, condition, and disease classification code.
The code is a system for classifying NIH-funded projects into scientific categories for public reporting. Among other provisions, the Senate bill would create new provisions regarding chronic or debilitating conditions in women related to menopause and midlife women’s health.
Another reason advocates say there is a lack of research on menopause is the influence of the Women’s Health Initiative. The Women’s Health Initiative, begun in 1991, is a series of NIH clinical trials focused on prevention strategies for postmenopausal heart disease, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and osteoporosis. woman.
Some Women’s Health Initiative findings, which have since been found to be flawed, found that people taking hormones had an increased risk of developing breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and pulmonary embolism. It turned out that.
Since then, further research has proven that hormone replacement therapy does not necessarily lead to an increased risk of breast cancer, and that the benefits of hormones may outweigh the risks. But discoveries linking hormone therapy to breast cancer have led to fewer treatments for some of the more devastating side effects of menopause, Schubert said.
“We’re way behind the curve, especially when it comes to menopause. And now we’re having a more open and public dialogue about that time in life and coming to the realization that we really need to know more.” But we also need to know more about other health risks associated with healthy aging,” Schubert said.
Schubert said support for federal research on menopause is spreading on both sides, and other women’s health issues are emerging as well, including research on diseases like endometriosis.
In April, California Sen. LaFonza Butler (D) and Alabama Sen. Katie Britt (R) announced funding for maternal mortality research annually for seven years to target disparities related to maternal mortality. , introduced a bill to authorize research to reduce maternal mortality. Among other provisions of the bill, it includes preventable causes of death. The House has its own bill.
“I think when people hear the words ‘women’s health,’ they might think it’s being politically charged,” Schubert said. “I think we need to change our mindset so that we all understand that we’re serious about lifelong health in different ways. It’s really about specific diseases, It’s not about conditions, it’s not about organs, it’s actually all connected.”
The focus on menopause brought together members of Congress who don’t normally work together. Unlike abortion, lawmakers were able to unite on this issue without the controversy and partisan divisions that often plague their work.
Samara Daley, co-founder and board chair of Let’s Talk Menopause, a national nonprofit focused on menopause, said, There is no greater division within the community we call the United States.” “This is another medical issue that literally crosses every political, social and economic line. It’s a natural part of life… so that people on both sides of the aisle can work together. It was.”
underrated
Women have been underrepresented in medical research for decades, and at one time it even became policy.
In 1977, the Food and Drug Administration established a policy that excluded women who were biologically capable of bearing children from Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials unless they had a life-threatening medical condition.
Researchers have taken a cautious approach to including women in clinical trials after pregnant women who took the drug thalidomide gave birth to babies with deformed limbs. Thalidomide was a sedative that was not approved for use in the United States, but was widely used in Europe and Canada. The resulting FDA policy recommended excluding women who used birth control, were single, or even women whose husbands had vasectomies.
The NIH did not establish a policy to encourage researchers to include women in research until 1986, and it was not until 1993 that Congress passed legislation mandating the participation of women in clinical research.
“There are other health issues that may only affect some women. This one is universal. Over the past few decades, there has been a stigma against different types of women’s health issues. We’ve seen more and more relief,” said Cindy Hall, director of the Women’s Congressional Policy Institute.
A 2022 study by Harvard Medical School found that women are less likely to participate in clinical trials for the three diseases that affect them the most (cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mental illness), despite being 51% women in the United States. As of 2019, it was found that approximately 40% of the respondents were women. population.
According to a study by the Menopause Society, only about 30 percent of training programs in the United States offer a formal menopause curriculum.
“In fact, we are at the very beginning of trying to understand what happens during the menopausal transition and what is needed in terms of which hormone therapies are effective and which are not.” ,” said Stephanie Fabion, medical director of the Menopause Association. Director of the Mayo Clinic Women’s Health Center.
Another bipartisan bill would require the NIH to evaluate the results and status of and support completed and ongoing research on the health of menopausal, perimenopausal, or midlife women. are.
“This is really important because not only would the NIH actually be required to review existing research, but it would also require additional research on truly fixing the problem, not just treatments and health outcomes. This is because you will be investing dedicated funds in research. [Women’s Health Initiative] Study,” Daly said.
White House involvement
In addition to bipartisan legislation in Congress, the outgoing Biden administration supports increased funding for menopause research as part of President Joe Biden’s investment in women’s health. However, it is unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will continue that effort.
In November 2023, Mr. Biden announced the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, led by First Lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council.
On October 23, the Biden administration announced a $110 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to accelerate research and development for women’s health by 23 research teams.
Two of these awards focused on menopause, with one aimed at developing new ovarian treatments to prevent menopause and one aimed at reducing the negative effects of menopause. The aim is to develop drugs to eliminate it.
One of the $3.5 million awards will fund research to test the development of drugs that improve ovarian function and extend lifespan. The other will receive $10 million to replace defective ovarian function, restore normal hormonal processes, manage symptoms associated with menopause, and minimize adverse health effects associated with menopause. It was planned to fund research into cell therapy implants to suppress the disease.
Jill Biden launched ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health in February, making it the first major product of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
The White House says the nature of the award means projects could be commercialized and widely used sooner rather than decades later.
Supporters say they hope there will be a common understanding among women in Congress about what menopause looks like, and that campaigning on the issue will continue.
“It’s a universal experience. Obviously each woman has a different personal experience of menopause, but the symptoms and experience of embarrassing hot flashes and the various symptoms that make it difficult to get over them are a kind of unity.” said Mr. Hall.
