President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order Monday promoting women’s health research as the country continues to celebrate Women’s History Month.
The White House described it as the “most comprehensive set of actions” taken by a president to advance women’s health research, which will focus on diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect women.
Biden already hinted at the initiative during his State of the Union address earlier this month, describing women’s health as chronically underfunded and urging Congress to approve $12 billion to support a women’s health fund for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). .
Here are some of the women’s health issues Biden said he wants to address in his executive order:
Research targeting postmenopausal women’s health
Biden’s executive order will support research on middle-aged women’s health and diseases that are prevalent after menopause, including heart disease and osteoporosis.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be directed to increase data collection on midlife women’s health and find ways to improve management of menopause-related issues.
After someone goes through menopause, their ovaries produce less estrogen, which increases the risk of developing certain health problems.
Heart disease is one of the most common health problems faced by postmenopausal women. Women are at lower risk of heart disease than men before age 55 because estrogen protects blood vessels and helps the body balance cholesterol levels.
After a woman produces less estrogen, the arteries can become thicker and harder, and “bad” cholesterol can build up on artery walls, leading to heart disease.
By age 70, women have the same risk of heart disease as men of the same age, according to HHS. They are also at increased risk of stroke.
Osteoporosis — a bone disease caused by loss of bone density and bone mass, as well as structural changes in the bone — is another risk faced by postmenopausal women. Lower estrogen levels after menopause can accelerate bone loss, increasing the risk of fractures.
It is not known how many older women have osteoporosis in the U.S., but according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, it is estimated that about 30 percent of postmenopausal Caucasian women have osteoporosis, according to the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center.
According to the executive order, Biden also said the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Veterans Affairs will assess the needs of female service members and veterans for midlife health issues, including menopausal symptoms.
More women in clinical trials
In the executive order, the president said members of the initiative will work to “improve the recruitment, enrollment, and retention of women in clinical trials, including, as appropriate, by reducing barriers through advances in technology and data science.”
Back in the 1970s, few women were enrolled in clinical trials, and women’s health needs were considered a low priority.
In 1986, the NIH instituted a policy that encouraged the inclusion of women in trials, but the policy was poorly communicated and inconsistently enforced. Eventually, Congress passed a law in 1993 that established guidelines for the inclusion of women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups in clinical research.
However, women are still underrepresented, especially in the early stages of clinical trials. A 2022 study found that women accounted for between 29% and 34% of early stage clinical trials due to fertility concerns. This can often lead to a lack of understanding of how women may respond to a new drug compared to men.
Another 2022 study from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that women make up 60 percent of all patients with psychiatric disorders, but only 42 percent of participants in clinical trials investigating drugs and devices to treat those disorders. Similar findings were observed in a review of clinical trial data for cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Conditions with different symptoms in men and women
During a press conference Sunday afternoon, Dr. Carolyn Mazur, chairwoman of the White House Research Initiative on Women’s Health, said the order would also focus on conditions that disproportionately affect women, including Alzheimer’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis .
Women have a greater lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than men, one reason being that women live longer than men, according to an article published in Harvard Health Publishing by Harvard Medical School.
However, it is not known whether there are biomarkers or other unknown factors that make women more susceptible.
In the case of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), women are up to three times more likely than men to be diagnosed with the condition. Several factors, including sex hormones, are thought to play a role, but researchers say more work needs to be done to understand why women are more prone to developing rheumatoid arthritis and also why different joints are affected in women compared to men.
ABC News’ Fritiz Farrow and Selina Wang contributed to this report.
