Federal funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, which as one of the largest research projects in women’s health has shaped treatment of menopause, osteoporosis, and nutrition, will be reduced in September, the program said Tuesday in a message to its 40 regional centers.
The project may be best known for changing the way hormones are prescribed during menopause, when safety data led study leaders to immediately stop hormone therapy given to its trial volunteers. In the decades since, analysis has continued and led to an evolution in treatment.
“The funding cuts to the landmark nationwide Women’s Health Initiative will deal a devastating blow to the health of all older adults in the U.S. and throughout the world,” JoAnn Manson, one of the long-term principal investigators of the WHI and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told STAT. “The WHI’s groundbreaking research has not only improved the health of older women, one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, but has also advanced healthy aging in the overall population.”
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